S^B&S^9&9m 


7    't.  -n 


3".^-^%Alis 


ttN-^TM: 


S^! 


N  t>>^<"?47m-T 


lER 


I 


^ 

^ 


i^S^S^S.@S^Si^#S 


««■■ 

V' '  ■ 

' 

1            ^v 

r 

K 

^K~                   ■'■'^^^'. 

nj 

A 

^rO 


O 


^    J.   .  ,J  .■   - 


5  ,  ,  ■> 


Or  '?■■''» 
LD      !  RAILS 


.^uasHfla  TO  ^roI^lv  3ht 
By  Frank  H.   Severance 


BUFFALO   N  Y 


oxcix 


THE    VISION    OF    BREBEUF. 

Drawn  by  H.  H.  Green.  .     .      See  Page  /j. 


Old  Trails 


ON  THE 


Niagara  Frontier 


BUFFALO   N  Y 


MDCCCXCIX 


Copyright  1899 
By  Frank   H.  Severance 


TM€  MATTHEWS-MOKTmiUf  CO., 

Complete  Art-Printing  Works, 
Buffalo,  N.  Y. 


TO    THE 

Young  People  of  the  Schools 
of  buffalo, 

Many  of  whom,  on  sundry  pleasant 
occasions,  have  accompanied  me,  in 
school-room  talks,  over  some  of  the 
Old   Trails   which    run   in  and   out 

OF     our     home     region,     these     STUDIES 

of  Niagara  Frontier  History  are 
cordially  inscribed. 

F.     H.     S. 


We92a2 


CONTENTS 


Dedication, v 

Preface, ix 

The  Cross  Bearers, 1 

The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch,       ...  43 

With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara,       .           .     .  63 

What  Befel  David  Ogden, 107 

A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial, 141 

The   Journals   and   Journeys    of    an   Early 

Buffalo  Merchant, 163 

Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh,    .     .     .     .  195 

Underground  Trails, 227 

Niagara  and  The  Poets, 275 


PREFACE. 


THE  essays  herein  contained  have  been  written  at  "odd 
moments,"  and  for  divers  purposes.  Their  chief  value  lies 
in  the  fact  that  they  illustrate,  several  of  them  by  means  of  indi- 
vidual experiences,  certain  typical  and  well-defined  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  Niagara  region.  By  "  Niagara  region, "  a  phrase 
which  no  doubt  occurs  pretty  often  in  the  following  pages,  I 
mean  to  designate  in  a  historic,  not  a  scenic,  sense  the  frontier 
territory  of  the  Niagara  from  Lake  Erie  to  Lake  Ontario.  It  is  a 
region  which  has  a  concrete  but  as  yet  for  the  most  part  unwritten 
history  of  its  own.  The  value  of  its  past  to  the  student,  as  is  ever 
the  case  with  *' local  history"  in  its  worthy  aspect,  depends  upon 
the  importance  of  its  relation  to  the  general  history  of  our  country. 
That  the  Niagara  region  has  played  an  important  part  in  that 
history,  is  an  assurance  wholly  superfluous  for  even  the  most 
casual  student  of  American  development.  All  that  the  following 
studies  undertake  is  to  give  a  glimpse,  with  such  fidelity  as  may  be, 
of  events  and  conditions  hereabouts  existing,  at  periods  which  may 
fairly  be  termed  typical. 

'♦The  Cross  Bearers,"  a  paper  originally  prepared  as  a  lecture 
for  a  class  that  was  studying  the  history  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
America,  is,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  first  attempt  to  review  in  a 
single  narrative  all  of  the  French  missions  in  this  immediate 
vicinity,  and  the  work  of  the  English-speaking  missionary  priests 
who  said  mass  in  the  Niagara  region  prior  to  its  full  organization 
under  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  The  data  are  drawn  from  the 
original  sources  —  the  Jesuit  Relations,  Champlain,  Le  Clercq, 
Hennepin,  Charlevoix,  Crespel  and  other  early  writers  whose 
works,  in  any  edition,  are  often  inaccessible  to  the  student.  F^or 
data  relating  to  Bishop  Burke,  and  for  other  valuable  assistance, 
I  am  indebted  to  my  friend  the  Very  Rev.  Wm.  R.  Harris,  Dean 
of  St.  Catharines. 


X  Preface, 

"The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch"  is  an  attempt  to  picture, 
in  narrative  form,  conditions  conceived  to  exist  at  Fort  Niagara  in 
i687-'8,  when  the  Marquis  de  Denonville  made  his  abortive 
attempt  to  occupy  that  point.  Lest  any  reader  shall  be  in  doubt 
as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  memoirs  of  the  Chevalier  De  Tregay,  I 
beg  to  assure  him  that  Lieut.  De  Tregay  is  no  myth.  His  name, 
and  practically  all  the  facts  on  which  my  sketch  is  based,  will  be 
found  in  the  Paris  Documents  (IV.),  "  Documentary  History  of 
the  State  of  New  York,"  Vol.  I.  This  paper  stands  for  the 
French  period  on  the  Niagara  ;  the  two  next  following,  for  the 
British  period. 

"With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara"  is  almost  wholly  drawn  from 
unpublished  records,  chiefly  the  Haldimand  Papers,  the  originals 
of  which  are  in  the  British  Museum,  but  certified  copies  of  which 
are  readily  accessible  to  the  student  in  the  Archives  at  Ottawa.  I 
have  made  but  a  slight  study  of  the  great  mass  of  material  from 
which  practically  the  history  of  the  Niagara  region  during  the 
Revolution  is  to  be  written  ;  yet  it  is  probable  that  this  slight 
study  makes  known  for  the  first  time,  to  students  of  our  home 
history,  such  facts  as  the  employment  of  Hessians  on  the  Niagara 
during  the  Revolution,  the  first  bringing  hither  of  the  American 
flag,  possibly  even  the  work  and  fate  of  Lieut.  Col.  Bolton 
himself. 

The  next  paper,  "What  Befel  David  Ogden,"  is  drawn  from 
a  widely  different,  though  scarcely  less  known  source.  The  per- 
sonal narrative  is  based  on  an  obscure  pamphlet  by  Josiah  Priest, 
published  at  Lansingburgh,  N.  Y.,  in  1840.  I  am  aware  that 
Priest  is  not  altogether  trustworthy  as  a  historian.  Dr.  Thos.  W. 
Field  calls  him  a  "prolific,  needy  and  unscrupulous  author" 
\See  "An  Essay  Toward  an  Indian  Bibliography"]  ;  yet  he  con- 
cedes to  his  works  *  •  a  large  amount  of  historic  material  obtained 
at  some  pains  from  sources  more  or  less  authentic."  My  judg- 
ment is,  that  Priest  is  least  trustworthy  in  his  more  ambitious 
work  ;  whereas  his  unpretentious  pamphlets,  wretchedly  printed  at 
a  country  press  sixty  years  ago,  contain  true  narratives  of  indi- 
vidual undertakings  in  the  Revolution,  Indian  captivities  and  other 


Preface.  xi 

pioneer  experiences,  gathered  by  the  writer  direct  from  the  hero 
whose  adventures  he  wrote  down,  without  literary  skill  it  is  true, 
but  also  without  apparent  perversion  or  exaggeration.  The  very 
circumstantiality  with  which  David  Ogden's  experiences  are 
narrated  is  evidence  of  their  genuineness.  Corroborative  evidence 
is  also  furnished  by  the  lately-published  muster-rolls  of  New  York 
regiments  during  the  Revolution.  In  the  Third  Regiment  of 
Tryon  County  militia,  among  the  enlisted  men,  appears  the  name 
of  David  Ogden  [**New  York  in  the  Revolution,"  2d  ed.,  p.  i8i], 
and  there  was  but  one  David  Ogden,  not  merely  in  the  Tryon 
County  militia,  but  so  far  as  these  records  show,  in  the  entire 
soldiery  of  New  York  State.  In  the  same  regiment  there  was  also 
a  "Daniel"  Ogden,  Sr.,  possibly  David's  father.  The  name 
Daniel  Ogden  also  occurs  in  the  list  of  Tryon  County  Rangers 
["New  York  in  the  Revolution,"  2d  ed.,  p.  l86],  a  service  in 
which  we  would  naturally  expect  to  find  one  whom  the  Indian 
Brant  called  "the  beaver  hunter,  that  old  scouter."  In  short,  I 
think  we  may  accept  David  as  altogether  genuine,  and  in  his 
adventures  —  never  told  before,  I  believe,  as  a  part  of  Niagara 
history  —  may  find  an  example  of  patriotic  suffering  and  endurance 
wholly  typical  of  what  many  another  underwent  at  that  time  and 
in  this  region. 

The  "Fort  Niagara  Centennial  Address"  is  here  included 
because  its  most  important  part  relates  to  that  period  in  our  his- 
tory immediately  following  the  Revolution,  the  ' '  hold-over  period, " 
during  which,  for  thirteen  years  after  the  Treaty  of  1783,  the 
British  continued  to  occupy  Fort  Niagara  and  other  lake  posts. 
What  I  say  on  the  negotiations  leading  to  the  final  relinquishment 
of  Fort  Niagara  is  based  on  information  gleaned  from  the  manu- 
script records  in  London  and  Ottawa. 

"The  Journals  and  Journeys  of  an  Early  Buffalo  Merchant"  is 
also  a  contribution  to  local  annals  from  an  unpublished  source, 
being  drawn  from  the  MS.  journals  of  John  Lay,  very  kindly 
placed  in  my  hands  by  members  of  his  family.  They  afford  a 
picture  of  conditions  hereabouts  and  elsewhere,  during  the  years 
i8ia-'23,  which  I  have  thought  worthy  of  preservation. 


xii  Preface, 

In  the  "Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh"  1  have  endeav- 
ored by  means  of  a  personal  narrative  to  illustrate  another  period 
in  our  history.  The  misguided  Marsh  fairly  stands  for  many  of 
the  so-called  Patriots  whose  uprising  on  this  border  is  known  as 
Mackenzie's  Rebellion  of  i837-'8.  The  considerable  literature  .on 
this  subject  includes  a  number  of  personal  narratives,  for  the  most 
part  published  in  small  editions  and  now  hard  to  find  ;  but  the 
scarcest  of  all,  so  far  as  my  experience  has  discovered,  is  that 
from  which  I  have  drawn  the  story  of  Robert  Marsh  :  ' '  Seven 
Years  of  My  Life,  or  Narrative  of  a  Patriot  Exile,  who  together 
with  eighty-two  American  Citizens  were  illegally  tried  for 
rebellion  in  Upper  Canada  and  transported  to  Van  Dieman's 
Land,"  etc.,  etc.  It  is  an  exceedingly  prolix  and  pretentious  title, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  time,  prefacing  a  badly-written,  poorly- 
printed  volume  of  207  pages,  turned  out  by  the  press  of  Faxon  & 
Stevens,  Buffalo,  1848.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  neither  in  Sabin 
nor  any  other  bibliography  have  I  found  any  mention  of  this  book, 
and  the  further  fact  that  in  fifteen  years  of  somewhat  diligent  book- 
hunting  I  have  discovered  but  one  copy,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
call  Marsh's  "Narrative"   "scarce,"  if  not  "rare." 

The  incidents  related  in  "Underground  Trails"  are  illustra- 
tive of  many  an  episode  at  the  eastern  end  of  Lake  Erie  in  the 
days  preceding  the  Civil  War.  I  had  the  facts  of  the  principal 
adventures  some  years  ago  from  the  late  Mr.  Frank  Henry  of  Erie, 
Pa.,  who  had  himself  been  a  participant  in  more  than  one  worthy 
enterprise  of  the  Underground  Railroad.  Sketches  based  on 
information  supplied  by  Mr.  Henry,  and  originally  written  out  for 
the  Erie  Gazette,  are  the  latter  part  of  the  paper  as  it  now  stands. 

The  last  essay,  " Niagara  and  the  Poets,"  is  a  following  of  "Old 
Trails  "  chiefly  in  a  literary  sense,  but  it  is  thought  its  inclusion 
here  will  not  be  found  inappropriate  to  the  general  character  of 
the  collection. 

I  must  add  a  word  of  grateful  acknowledgment  for  help  received 
from  Douglas  Brymner,  Dominion  Archivist,  at  Ottawa  ;  from  the 
Hon.  Peter  A.  Porter  of  Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y.,  Charles  W.  Dobbins 
of  New  York  City,  and  John  Miller,  Erie,  Pa.  F.   H.   S. 


The  Cross  Bearers, 


THE   CROSS  BEARERS. 


I  INVITE  YOU  to  consider  briefly  with  me  the 
beginnings  of  known  history  in  our  home  region. 
Of  the  general  character  of  that  history,  as  a  jmrt 
of  the  exploration  and  settlement  of  the  lake  region, 
you  are  already  familiar.  What  I  undertake  is  to 
direct  special  attention  to  a  few  of  the  individuals 
who  made  that  history — for  history,  in  the  ultimate 
analysis,  is  merely  the  record  of  the  result  of  personal 
character  and  influence ;  and  it  is  striking  to  note  how 
relatively  few  and  individual  are  the  dominating  minds. 
Remembering  this,  when  we  turn  to  trace  the  story 
of  the  Niagara,  we  find  the  initial  impulses  strikingly 
different  from  those  which  lie  at  the  base  of  history  in 
many  places.  Often  the  first  chapter  in  the  story  is  a 
record  of  war  for  war's  sake —  the  aim  being  conquest, 
acquisition  of  territory,  or  the  search  for  gold.  Not  so 
here.  The  first  invasion  of  white  men  in  this  mid-lake 
region  was  a  mission  of  peace  and  good  will.  Our 
history  begins  in  a  sweet  and  heroic  obedience  to  com- 
mands passed  down  direct  from  the  Founder  of  Chris- 
tianity Himself.  Into  these  wilds,  long  before  the 
banner  of  any  earthly  kingdom  was  planted  here,  was 
borne  the  cross  of  Christ.  Here  the  crucifix  preceded 
the  sword ;  the  altar  was  built  before  the  hearth. 


r2.'      ;  '  :  :       The  Cross  Bearers. 

Now,  1  care  not  wLat  the  faith  of  the  student  be,  he 
cannoi  escape  the  iacts.  The  cross  is  stamped  upon 
the  first  page  of  our  home  history  —  of  this  Buffalo  and 
the  banks  of  the  Niagara ;  and  whoever  would  know 
something  of  that  history  must  follow  the  footsteps  of 
those  who  first  brought  the  cross  to  these  shores.  It 
is,  therefore,  a  brief  following  of  the  personal  experi- 
ences of  these  early  cross  bearers  that  we  undertake  ; 
but  first,  a  word  may  be  permitted  by  way  of  re- 
minder as  to  the  conditions  here  existing  when  our 
recorded  history  begins. 

From  remote  days  unrecorded,  the  territory  border- 
ing the  Niagara,  between  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  was 
occupied  by  a  nation  of  Indians  called  the  Neuters.  A 
few  of  their  villages  were  on  the  east  side  of  the  river, 
the  easternmost  being  supposed  to  have  stood  near  the 
present  site  of  Lockport.  The  greater  part  of  the 
Niagara  peninsula  of  Ontario  and  the  north  shore  of 
Lake  Erie  was  their  territory.  To  the  east  of  them,  in 
the  Genesee  valley  and  beyond,  dwelt  the  Senecas,  the 
westernmost  of  the  Iroquois  tribes.  To  the  north  of 
them,  on  Lake  Huron  and  the  Georgian  Bay,  dwelt 
the  Hurons.  About  1650  the  Iroquois  overran  the 
Neuter  territory,  destroyed  the  nation  and  made  the 
region  east  of  the  Niagara  a  part  of  their  own  terri- 
tory ;  though  more  than  a  century  elapsed,  after  their 
conquest  of  the  Neuters,  before  the  Senecas  made  per- 
manent villages  on  Buffalo  Creek  and  near  the  Niagara. 
It  is  necessary  to  bear  this  fact  in  mind,  in  considering 
the  visits  of  white   men  to  this   region   during   that 


The  Cross  Bearers.  3 

period ;  it  had  become  territory  of  the  Senecas,  but 
they  only  occupied  it  at  intervals,  on  hunting  or  fish- 
ing expeditions. 

During  the  latter  years  of  Neuter  possession  of  our 
region,  missionaries  began  to  approach  the  Niagara 
from  two  directions ;  but  long  before  any  brave  soul 
had  neared  it  through  v/hat  is  now  New  York  State, — 
then  the  heart  of  the  fierce  Iroquois  country, —  others, 
more  successful,  had  come  down  from  the  early-estab- 
lished missions  among  the  Hurons,  had  sojourned 
among  the  Neuters  and  had  offered  Christian  prayers 
among  the  savages  east  of  the  Niagara. 

Note,  therefore,  that  the  first  white  man  known  to 
have  visited  the  Niagara  region  was  a  Catholic  priest. 
Moreover,  so  far  as  is  ascertained,  he  was  the  first  man, 
coming  from  what  is  now  Canada,  to  bring  the  Chris- 
tian faith  into  the  present  territory  of  the  United 
States.  This  man  was  Joseph  de  la  Roche  Dallion.^ 
The  date  of  his  visit  is  1626. 

Father  Dallion  was  a  Franciscan  of  the  Recollect 
reform,  who  had  been  for  a  time  at  the  mission  among 
the  Hurons,  then  carried  on  jointly  by  priests  and  lay 
brothers  of  the  Recollects  and  also  by  Fathers  of  the 

1  Of  ten  spelled  "Daillon"  or  "d'Allion,"  the  latter  form  suggesting 
origin  from  the  name  of  a  place,  as  is  common  in  the  French.  Charlevoix 
sometimes  wrongly  has  it  "  de  Dallion."  I  follow  the  spelling  as  given  in 
the  priest's  own  signature  to  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  Paris,  dated  at  "  Tona- 
chain  [Toanchain],  Huron  village,  this  i8th  July,  1627,"  and  signed 
"Joseph  De  La  Roche  Dallion."  The  student  of  seventeenth-century 
history  need  not  be  reminded  that  little  uniformity  in  the  spelling  of  proper 
names  can  be  looked  for,  either  in  printed  books  or  manuscripts.  In 
French,  as  in  English,  men  spelled  their  names  in  different  ways  —  Shakes- 
peare, it  is  said,  achieving  thirty-nine  variations.  The  matter  bears  on 
our  present  study  because  the  diversity  of  spelling  may  involve  the  young 
student  in  perplexity.  Thus,  the  name  of  the  priests  Lalemant  (there 
were  three  of  them)  is  given  by  Le  Clercq  as  "  Lallemant,"  by  Charlevoix 


4  The  Cross  Bearers. 

Society  of  Jesus.  On  October  18th  of  this  year 
(1626),  he  left  his  companions,  resolved  to  carry  the 
cross  among  the  people  of  the  Neuter  nation.  An  in- 
terpreter, Brusle,  had  '*told  wonders"  of  these  people. 
Brusle,  it  would  seem,  therefore,  had  been  among  them  ; 
and  although,  as  I  have  said.  Father  Dallion  was  the 
first  white  man  known  to  have  reached  the  Niagara,  yet 
it  is  just  to  consider  the  probabilities  in  the  case  of 
this  all  but  unknown  interpreter.  There  are  plausible 
grounds  for  belief,  but  no  proof,  that  Etienne  Brusle 
was  the  first  white  man  who  ever  saw  Niagara  Falls. 
No  adventurer  in  our  region  had  a  more  remarkable 
career  than  his,  yet  but  little  of  it  is  known  to  us.  He 
was  with  Champlain  on  his  journey  to  the  Huron 
country.  He  left  that  explorer  in  September,  1615, 
at  the  outlet  of  Lake  Simcoe,  and  went  on  a  most 
perilous  mission  into  the  country  of  the  Andastes,  allies 
of  the  Hurons,  to  enlist  them  against  the  Iroquois. 
The  Andastes  lived  on  the  head -waters  of  the  Susque- 
hanna, and  along  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  the 
present  site  of  Buffalo  being  generally  included  within 
the  bounds  of  their  territory.     Champlain  saw  nothing 

(a  much  later  historian)  as  "  Lallemant  "  or  "  Lalemant,"  but  in  the  con- 
temporary "Relations"  of  i64i-'42  as  "Lallemant,"  "Lalemant"  or 
"  L'allemant."  Many  other  names  are  equally  variable,  changes  due  to 
elision  being  sometimes,  but  not  always,  indicated  by  accents,  as  "  Brusle," 
"Brule."  Thus  we  have  "Jolliet"  or  "Joliet,"  "DeGallin^e"  or  "  De 
Galinee,"  "  Du  Lu,"  "  Du  Luth."  "Duluth,"  etc.  When  we  turn  to 
modern  English,  the  confusion  is  much  — and  needlessly —  increased.  Dr. 
Shea,  the  learned  translator  and  editor  of  Le  Clercq,  apparently  aimed  to 
put  all  the  names  into  English,  without  accents.  Parkman,  or  his  publish- 
ers, have  been  guilty  of  many  inconsistencies,  now  speaking  of  "  Brtibeuf," 
now  of  "  Brebeuf ,"  and  changing  "  Le  Clercq  "  to  "  Le  Clerc."  The 
"Historical  Writings"  of  Buffalo's  pre-eminent  student  in  this  field, 
Orsamus  H.  Marshall,  share  with  many  less  valuable  works  — the  present, 
no  doubt,  among  them  —  these  inconsistencies  of  style  in  the  use  of  proper 
names. 


The  Cross  Bearers.  ^ 

more  of  Brusle  for  three  years,  but  in  the  summer  of 
1618  met  him  at  Saut  St.  Louis.  Brusle  had  had 
wonderful  adventures,  had  even  been  bound  to  the 
stake  and  burned  so  severely  that  he  must  have  been 
frightfully  scarred.  The  name  by  which  we  know  him 
may  have  been  given  him  on  this  account.  He  was 
saved  from  death  by  what  the  Indians  regarded  as  an 
exhibition  of  wrath  on  the  part  of  the  Great  Spirit.  I 
find  no  trace  of  him  between  1618  and  1626,  when 
Father  Dallion  appears  to  have  taken  counsel  of  him 
regarding  the  Neuters.  Brusle  was  murdered  by  the 
Hurons  near  Penetanguishene  in  1632.  What  is 
known  of  him  is  learned  from  Champlain's  narrative  of 
the  voyage  of  1618  (edition  of  1627).  Sagard  also 
speaks  of  him,  and  says  he  made  an  exploration  of  the 
upper  lakes— a  claim  not  generally  credited.  Parkman, 
drawing  from  these  sources  and  the  ^  ^  Relations, ' '  tells  his 
story  in  "  The  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World," 
admiringly  calls  him  "  That  Pioneer  of  Pioneers,"  and 
says  that  he  seems  to  have  visited  the  Fries  in  1615. 

The  interesting  thing  about  him  in  connection  with 
our  present  study  is  the  fact  that  he  appears  to  have 
been  the  forerunner  of  Dallion  among  the  savages  of 
the  Niagara.  There  is  no  white  man  named  in  history 
who  may  be  even  conjectured,  with  any  plausibility,  to 
have  visited  the  Niagara  earlier  than  Brusle.^ 

1  Mr.  Consul  W.  Butterfield,  whose  "  History  of  Brule's  Discoveries  and 
Explorations,  1610-1626,"  has  appeared  since  the  above  was  written,  is  of 
opinion  that  Bri'ile  did  not  visit  the  falls,  nor  gain  any  particular  knowl- 
edge of  Lake  Erie,  as  that  lake  is  not  shown  on  Champlain's  map  of  1632  ; 
but  that  he  and  his  Indiao  escort  crossed  the  Niagara  near  Lake  Ontario, 
"  into  what  is  now  Western  New  York,  in  the  present  county  of  Niagara," 


6  The  Cross  Bearers. 

Stimulated  by  this  interpreter's  reports,  by  the 
encouragement  of  his  companions  and  the  promptings 
of  his  own  zeal,  Father  Dallion  set  out  for  the  unknown 
regions.  Two  Frenchmen,  Grenole  and  Lavallee, 
accompanied  him.  They  tramped  the  trail  for  six  days 
through  the  woods,  apparently  rounding  the  western 
end  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  coming  eastward  through 
the  Niagara  Peninsula.  They  were  well  received  at 
the  villages,  given  venison,  squashes  and  parched  corn 
to  eat,  and  were  shown  no  sign  of  hostility.  ''All 
were  astonished  to  see  me  dressed  as  I  was,"  writes 
the  father,  ''and  to  see  that  I  desired  nothing  of  theirs, 
except  that  I  invited  them  by  signs  to  lift  their  eyes 
to  heaven,  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  and  receive  the 
faith  of  Jesus  Christ."  The  good  priest,  however, 
had  another  object,  somewhat  unusual  to  the  men  of  his 
calling.  At  the  sixth  village,  where  he  had  been 
advised  to  remain,  a  council  was  held.  "There  I 
told  them,  as  well  as  I  could,  that  I  came  on  behalf  of 
the  French  to  contract  alliance  and  friendship  with 
them,  and  to  invite  them  to  come  to  trade.  I  also 
begged  them  to  allow  me  to  remain  in  their  country, 
to  be  able  to  instruct  them  in  the  law  of  our  God, 
which  is  the  only  means  of  going  to  paradise. ' '     The 


and  that  "  the  journey  was  doubtless  pursued  through  what  are  now  the 
counties  of  Erie,  Genesee,  Wyoming,  Livingston,  Steuben  and  Chemung 
into  Tioga,"  and  thence  down  the  Susquehanna.  It  is  probable  that 
Brule's  party  would  follow  existing  trails,  and  one  of  the  best  defined 
trails,  at  a  later  period  when  the  Senecas  occupied  the  country  as  far  wf=st 
as  the  Niagara,  followed  this  easterly  course  ;  but  there  were  other  trails, 
one  of  which  lay  along  the  east  bank  of  the  Niagara.  So  long  as  we  have 
no  ether  original  source  of  information  except  Champlain,  Sagard  and  Le 
Caron,  none  of  whom  has  left  any  explicit  record  of  Brule's  journeyings 
hereabouts,  so  long  must  his  exact  path  in  the  Niagara  region  remain 
untraced. 


The  Cross  Bearers.  7 

Neuters  accepted  the  priest's  offers,  and  the  first  re- 
corded trade  in  the  Niagara  region  was  made  when 
he  presented  them  'Mittle  knives  and  other  trifles." 
They  adopted  him  into  the  tribe,  and  gave  him  a 
father,  the  chief  Souharissen. 

x\fter  this  cordial  welcome,  Grenole  and  Lavallee 
returned  to  the  Hurons,  leaving  Father  Joseph  ''the 
happiest  man  in  the  world,  hoping  to  do  something 
there  to  advance  God's  glory,  or  at  least  to  discover 
the  means,  which  would  be  no  small  thing,  and  to  en- 
deavor to  discover  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  Hiroquois, 
in  order  to  bring  them  to  trade."  After  speaking  of 
the  people  and  his  efforts  to  teach  them,  he  continues  : 
"I  have  always  seen  them  constant  in  their  resolution 
to  go  with  at  least  four  canoes  to  the  trade,  if  I  would 
guide  them,  the  whole  difficulty  being  that  we  did  not 
know  the  way.  Yroquet,  an  Indian  known  in  those 
countries,  who  had  come  there  with  twenty  of  his  men 
hunting  for  beaver,  and  who  took  fully  500,  would 
never  give  us  any  mark  to  know  the  mouth  of  the 
river.  He  and  several  Hurons  assured  us  that  it  was 
only  ten  days'  journey  to  the  trading  place ;  but  we 
were  afraid  of  taking  one  river  for  another,  and  losing 
our  way  or  dying  of  hunger  on  the  land."  So  excel- 
lent an  authority  as  Dr.  John  Gilmary  Shea  says : 
'  *  This  was  evidently  the  Niagara  River,  and  the  route 
through  Lake  Ontario.  He  (Dallion)  apparently 
crossed  the  river,  as  he  was  on  the  Iroquois  frontier. ' ' 
The  great  conquest  of  the  Neuters  by  the  Iroquois  was 
not  until   1648   or  1650.     Just   what   the    ''Iroquois 


8  The  Cross  Bearers. 

frontier  "  was  in  1627  is  uncertain.  It  appears  to  have 
been  about  midway  between  the  Niagara  and  the  Gene- 
see, the  easternmost  Neuter  village  being  some  thirty 
miles  east  of  the  Niagara.  The  Recollect  appears  there- 
fore as  the  first  man  to  write  of  the  Niagara,  from  per- 
sonal knowledge,  and  of  its  mouth  as  a  place  of  trade. 
The  above  quotations  are  from  the  letter  Father  Dallion 
wrote  to  one  of  his  friends  in  France  July  18,  1627, 
he  having  then  returned  to  Toanchain,  a  Huron  village. 
I  have  followed  the  text  as  given  by  Sagard.  It  is 
significant  that  Le  Clercq,  in  his  "  Premier  Etablisse- 
ment  de  la  Foy,"  etc.,  gives  a  portion  of  Dallion' s 
account  of  his  visit  to  the  Neuters,  but  omits  nearly 
everything  he  says  about  trade. 

Father  Dallion  sojourned  three  winter  months  with 
the  Neuters,  but  the  latter  part  of  the  stay  was  far 
from  agreeable.  The  Hurons,  he  says,  having  dis- 
covered that  he  talked  of  leading  the  Neuters  to  trade, 
at  once  spread  false  and  evil  reports  of  him.  They 
said  he  was  a  great  magician  ;  that  he  was  a  poisoner, 
that  he  tainted  the  air  of  the  country  where  he  tar- 
ried, and  that  if  the  Neuters  did  not  kill  him,  he 
would  burn  their  villages  and  kill  their  children.  The 
priest  was  at  a  disadvantage  in  not  having  much  com- 
mand of  the  Neuter  dialect,  and  it  is  not  strange,  after 
the  evil  report  had  once  been  started,  that  he  should 
have  seemed  to  engage  in  some  devilish  incantation 
whenever  he  held  the  cross  before  them  or  sought  to 
baptize  the  children.  When  one  reflects  upon  the 
dense  wall  of  ignorance  and  superstition  against  which 


The  Cross  Bearers,  9 

his  every  effort  at  moral  or  spiritual  teaching  was  im- 
potent, the  admiration  for  the  martyr  spirit  which 
animated  the  effort  is  tempered  by  amazement  that  an 
acute  and  sagacious  man  should  have  thought  it  well 
to  "  labor  "  in  such  an  obviously  ineffective  way.  But 
history  is  full  of  instances  of  ardent  devotion  to  aims 
which  the  '*  practical"  man  would  denounce  at  once 
as  unattainable.  That  Father  Dallion  was  animated 
by  the  spirit  of  the  martyrs  is  attested  in  his  own 
account  of  what  befel  him.  A  treacherous  band  of 
ten  came  to  him  and  tried  to  pick  a  quarrel.  *'  One 
knocked  me  down  with  a  blow  of  his  fist,  another  took 
an  ax  and  tried  to  split  my  head.  God  averted  his 
hand ;  the  blow  fell  on  a  post  near  me.  I  also 
received  much  other  ill-treatment ;  but  that  is  what 
we  came  to  seek  in  this  country."  His  assailants 
robbed  him  of  many  of  his  possessions,  including  his 
breviary  and  compass.  These  precious  things,  which 
were  no  doubt  '*big  medicine  "  in  the  eyes  of  his  un- 
gracious hosts,  were  afterwards  returned.  The  news 
of  his  maltreatment  reached  the  ears  of  Fathers  Brebeuf 
and  De  la  Noue  at  the  Huron  mission.  They  sent  the 
messenger,  Grenole,  to  bring  him  back,  if  found  alive. 
Father  Dallion  returned  with  Grenole  early  in  the  year 
1627  ;  and  so  ended  the  first  recorded  visit  of  white 
man  to  the  Niagara  region. 


For  fourteen  years  succeeding,  I  find  no  allusion  to 
our  district.  Then  comes  an  episode  which  is  so 
adventurous  and  so  heroic,   so  endowed  with  beauty 


lo  The  Cross  Bearers. 

and  devotion,  that  it  should  be  familiar  to  all  who  give 
any  heed  to  what  has  happened  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Niagara. 

Jean  de  Brebeuf  was  a  missionary  priest  of  the 
Jesuits.  That  implies  much ;  but  in  his  case  even 
such  a  general  imputation  of  exalted  qualities  falls 
short  of  justice.  His  is  a  superb  figure,  a  splendid 
acquisition  to  the  line  of  heroic  figures  that  pass  in 
shadowy  procession  along  the  horizon  of  our  home 
history.  Trace  the  narrative  of  his  life  as  sedulously 
as  we  may,  examine  his  character  and  conduct  in  what- 
ever critical  light  we  may  choose  to  study  them,  and 
still  the  noble  figure  of  Father  Brebeuf  is  seen  without 
a  flaw.  There  were  those  of  his  order  whose  acts  were 
at  times  open  to  two  constructions.  Some  of  them 
were  charged,  by  men  of  other  faith  and  hostile  alle- 
giance, with  using  their  priestly  privileges  as  a  cloak 
for  worldly  objects.  No  such  charge  was  ever  brought 
against  Father  Brebeuf.  The  guiielessness  and  hero- 
ism of  his  life  are  unassailable. 

He  was  of  a  noble  Normandy  family,  and  when  he 
comes  upon  the  scene,  on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara,  he 
was  forty-seven  years  old.  He  had  come  out  to 
Quebec  fifteen  years  before  and  had  been  assigned  to 
the  Huron  mission.  In  1628  he  was  called  back  to 
Quebec,  but  five  years  later  he  was  allowed  to  return 
to  his  charge  in  the  remote  wilderness.  The  record  of 
his  work  and  sufferings  there  is  not  a  part  of  our  pres- 
ent story.  Those  who  seek  a  marvelous  exemplifica- 
tion of  human  endurance  and  devotion,  may  find  it  in 


The  Cross  Bearers.  1 1 

the  ancient  Relations  of  the  order.  He  lived  amid 
threats  and  plots  against  his  life,  he  endured  what 
se»ms  unendurable,  and  his  zeal  throve  on  the  experi- 
ence. In  November,  1640,  he  and  a  companion,  the 
priest  Joseph  Chaumonot,  resolved  to  carry  the  cross 
to  the  Neuter  nation.  They  no  doubt  knew  of  Father 
Dallion's  dismal  experience ;  and  were  spurred  on 
thereby.  Like  him,  they  sought  martyrdom.  Their 
route  from  the  Huron  country  to  the  Niagara  has  been 
traced  with  skill  and  probable  accuracy  by  the  Very 
Rev.  Wm.  R.  Harris,  Dean  of  St.  Catharines.  At 
this  time  the  Neuter  nation  lived  to  the  north  of  Lake 
Erie  throughout  what  we  know  as  the  Niagara  Penin- 
sula, and  on  both  sides  of  the  Niagara,  their  most  east- 
ern village  being  near  the  present  site  of  Lockport. 
From  an  uncertain  boundary,  thereabouts,  they  con- 
fronted the  possessions  of  the  Senecas,  v/ho  a  few  years 
later  were  to  wipe  them  off  the  face  of  the  earth  and 
occupy  all  their  territory  east  of  the  lake  and  river. 

Fathers  Brebeuf  and  Chaumonot  set  out  on  their 
hazardous  mission  November  2d,  in  the  year  named, 
from  a  Huron  town  in  the  present  township  of 
Medonte,  Ontario.  (NearPenetanguishene,  on  Georgian 
Bay.)  Their  probable  path  was  through  the  present 
towns  of  Beeton,  Orangeville,  Georgetown,  Hamilton 
and  St.  Catharines.  They  came  out  upon  the  Niagara 
just  north  of  the  Queenston  escarpment.  The  journey 
thus  far  had  been  a  succession  of  hardships.  The 
interpreters  whom  they  had  engaged  to  act  as  guides 
deserted  them  at  the  outset.     Ahead  of  them  went  the 


1 2  The  Cross  Bearers. 

reputation  which  the  Hurons  spread  abroad,  that  they 
were  magicians  and  carried  all  manner  of  evils  with 
them.  Father  Brebeuf  was  a  man  of  extraordinary 
physical  strength.  Many  a  time,  in  years  gone  by,  he 
had  astonished  the  Indians  by  his  endurance  at  the 
paddle,  and  in  carrying  great  loads  over  the  portages. 
His  companion,  Chaumonot,  was  smaller  and  weaker, 
but  was  equally  sustained  by  faith  in  Divine  guid- 
ance. On  their  way  through  the  forests.  Father  Bre- 
beuf was  cheered  by  a  vision  of  angels,  beckoning  him 
on ;  but  when  he  and  his  companion  finally  stood  on 
the  banks  of  the  Niagara,  under  the  leaden  sky  of  late 
November,  there  was  little  of  the  beatific  in  the 
prospect.  They  crossed  the  swirling  stream  —  by 
what  means  must  be  left  to  conjecture,  the  probability 
being  in  favor  of  a  light  bark  canoe  —  and  on  the 
eastern  bank  found  themselves  in  the  hostile  village  of 
Onguiara  —  the  first-mentioned  settlement  on  the  banks 
of  our  river. 

Here  the  half-famished  priests  were  charged  with 
having  come  to  ruin  the  people.  They  were  refused 
shelter  and  food,  but  finally  found  opportunity  to  step 
into  a  wigwam,  where  Indian  custom,  augmented  by 
fear,  permitted  them  to  remain.  The  braves  gathered 
around,  and  proposed  to  put  them  to  death.  "  I  am 
tired,"  cried  one,  ''eating  the  dark  flesh  of  our 
enemies,  and  I  want  to  taste  the  white  flesh  of  the 
Frenchman."  So  at  least  is  the  record  in  the  Rela- 
tion. Another  drew  bow  to  pierce  the  heart  of  Chau- 
monot ;  but  all  fell  back  in  awe  when  the  stalwart  Bre- 


The  Cross  Bearers.  1 3 

beuf  stepped  forth  into  their  midst,  without  weapon 
and  without  fear,  and  raising  his  hand  exclaimed : 
*'  We  have  not  come  here  for  any  other  purpose  than 
to  do  you  a  friendly  service.  We  wish  to  teach  you 
to  worship  the  Master  of  Life,  so  that  you  may  be 
happy  in  this  world  and  in  the  other. ' ' 

Whether  or  not  any  of  the  spiritual  import  of  his 
speech  was  comprehended  cannot  be  said ;  but  the 
temper  of  the  crowd  changed,  so  that,  instead  of 
threatening  immediate  death,  they  began  to  take  a 
curious,  childish  interest  in  the  two  '*  black-gowns '*; 
examining  the  priests'  clothes,  and  appropriating  their 
hats  and  other  loose  articles.  The  travelers  completely 
mystified  them  by  reading  a  written  message,  and  thus 
getting  at  another's  thoughts  without  a  spoken  word. 
The  Relation  is  rich  in  details  of  this  sort,  and  of  the 
wretchedness  of  the  life  which  the  missionaries  led. 
They  visited  other  ''  towns,"  as  the  collections  of  bark 
wigwams  are  called ;  but  everywhere  they  were  looked 
upon  as  necromancers,  and  their  lives  were  spared  only 
through  fear. 

Far  into  the  winter  the  priests  endured  all  manner 
of  hardship.  Food  was  sometimes  thrown  to  them  as 
to  a  worthless  dog,  sometimes  denied  altogether,  and 
then  they  had  to  make  shift  with  such  roots  and  barks 
or  chance  game  as  their  poor  woodcraft  enabled  them 
to  procure,  or  the  meager  winter  v/oods  afforded.  On 
one  occasion,  when  a  chief  frankly  told  them  that  his 
people  would  have  killed  them  long  before,  but  for 
fear  that  the  spirits  of  the  priests  would  in  vengeance 


14  The  Cross  Bearer's. 

destroy  them,  Brebeuf  began  to  assure  him  that  his 
mission  was  only  to  do  good ;  whereupon  the  savage 
replied  by  spitting  in  the  priest's  face;  and  the  priest 
thanked  God  that  he  was  worthy  of  the  same  indignity 
which  had  been  put  upon  Jesus  Christ.  When  one 
faces  his  foes  in  such  a  spirit,  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  to  fear.  And  yet,  after  four  months  of  these 
experiences,  there  seems  not  to  have  been  the  slightest 
sign  of  any  good  result.  The  savages  were  as  invul- 
nerable to  any  moral  or  spiritual  teachings  as  the  chill 
earth  itself.  Dumb  brutes  would  have  shown  more 
return  for  kindness  than  they.  The  saying  of  Cha- 
teaubriand, that  man  without  religion  is  the  most  dan- 
gerous animal  that  walks  the  earth,  found  full  justifi- 
cation in  these  savages.  Finally,  Brebeuf  and  his 
associate  determined  to  withdraw  from  the  absolutely 
fruitless  field,  and  began  to  retrace  their  steps  towards 
Huronia. 

It  was  near  the  middle  of  February,  1641,  when  they 
began  their  retreat  from  the  land  of  the  Neuters.  The 
story  of  that  retreat,  as  indeed  of  the  whole  mission, 
has  been  most  beautifully  told,  with  a  sympathetic  fer- 
vency impossible  for  one  not  richly  endowed  with  faith 
to  simulate,  by  Dean  Harris.  Let  his  account  of  what 
happened  stand  here : 

"The  snow  was  falling  when  they  left  the  village 
Onguiara,  crossed  the  Niagara  River  near  Queenston, 
ascended  its  banks  and  disappeared  in  the  shadowy 
forest.  The  path,  which  led  through  an  unbroken 
wilderness,    lay  buried    in   snow.     The   cold   pierced 


The  Cross  Bearers,  1 5 

them  through  and  through.  The  cords  on  Fr.  Chau- 
monot's  snow-shoe  broke,  and  his  stiffened  fingers 
could  scarcely  tie  the  knot.  Innumerable  flakes  of 
snow  were  falling  from  innumerable  branches.  Their 
only  food  was  a  pittance  of  Indian  corn  mixed  with 
melted  snow  ;  their  only  guide,  a  compass.  Worn  and 
spent  with  hardships,  these  saintly  men,  carrying  in 
sacks  their  portable  altar,  were  returning  to  announce 
to  their  priestly  companions  on  the  Wye  the  dismal 
news  of  their  melancholy  failure  and  defeat.  There 
was  not  a  hungry  wolf  that  passed  them  but  looked 
back  and  half  forgave  their  being  human.  There  was 
not  a  tree  but  looked  down  upon  them  with  pity  and 
commiseration.  Night  was  closing  in  when,  spent  with 
fatigue,  they  saw  smoke  rising  at  a  distance.  Soon 
they  reached  a  clearing  and  descried  before  them  a 
cluster  of  bark  lodges.  Here  these  Christian  soldiers 
of  the  cross  bivouacked  for  the  night. 

"Early  that  evening  while  Chaumonot,  worn  with 
traveling  and  overcome  with  sleep,  threw  himself  to 
rest  on  a  bed  that  was  not  made  up  since  the  creation 
of  the  world,  Father  Brebeuf,  to  escape  for  a  time  the 
acrid  and  pungent  smoke  that  filled  the  cabin,  went 
out  to  commune  with  God  alone  in  prayer.  . 
He  moved  toward  the  margin  ot  the  woods,  when 
presently  he  stopped  as  if  transfixed.  Far  away  to  the 
southeast,  high  in  the  air  and  boldly  outlined,  a  huge 
cross  floated  suspended  in  mid-heaven.  Was  it  sta- 
tionary? No,  it  moved  toward  him  from  the  land  of 
the  Iroquois.     The  saintly  face  lighted  with  unwonted 


1 6  The  Cross  Bearers. 

splendor,  for  he  saw  in  the  vision  the  presage  of  the 
martyr's  crown.  Tree  and  hillside,  lodge  and  village, 
faded  away,  and  while  the  cross  was  still  slowly 
approaching,  the  soul  of  the  great  priest  went  out.  in 
ecstasy,  in  loving  adoration  to  his  Lord  and  his  God. 
.  Overcome  with  emotion,  he  exclaimed,  '  Who 
will  separate  me  from  the  love  of  my  Lord?  Shall 
tribulation,  nakedness,  peril,  distress,  or  famine,  or  the 
sword  ?  '  Emparadised  in  ecstatic  vision,  he  again  cries 
out  with  enthusiastic  loyalty,  ^  Sentio  me  vehe?nenter 
impelli  ad  moriendtcm  pro  Chris  to' — 'I  feel  within  me 
a  mighty  impulse  to  die  for  Christ'  —  and  flinging  him- 
self upon  his  knees  as  a  victim  for  the  sacrifice  or  a 
holocaust  for  sin,  he  registered  his  wondrous  vow  to 
meet  martyrdom,  when  it  came  to  him,  with  the  joy 
and  resignation  befitting  a  disciple  of  his  Lord. 

* '  When  he  returned  to  himself  the  cross  had  faded 
away,  innumerable  stars  were  brightly  shining,  the  cold 
was  wrapping  him  in  icy  mantle,  and  he  retraced  his 
footsteps  to  the  smoky  cabin.  He  flung  himself  beside 
his  weary  brother  and  laid  him  down  to  rest.  When 
morning  broke  they  began  anew  their  toilsome  journey, 
holding  friendly  converse. 

"  'Was  the  cross  large?'  asked  Father  Chaumonot. 

''  *  Large,'  spoke  back  the  other,  '  yes,  large  enough 
to  crucify  us  all.'  " 

It  is  idle  to  insist  on  judgments  by  the  ordinary 
standards  in  a  case  like  this.  As  Parkman  says,  it 
belongs  not  to  history,  but  to  psychology.  Brebeuf 
saw   the   luminous   cross   in    the    heavens   above   the 


The  Cross  Bearers.  1 7 

Niagara ;  not  the  material,  out-reaching  arms  of 
Niagara's  spray,  rising  columnar  from  the  chasm,  then 
resting,  with  crosslike  extensions  on  the  quiet  air, 
white  and  pallid  under  the  winter  moan.  Such  phe- 
nomena are  not  unusual  above  the  cataract,  but  may 
not  be  offered  in  explanation  of  the  priest's  vision. 
He  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  Grimsby,  full  twenty 
miles  from  the  falls,  when  he  saw  the  cross ;  much  too 
far  away  to  catch  the  gleam  of  frosted  spray.  Nor  is 
it  a  gracious  spirit  which  seeks  a  material  explanation 
for  his  vision.  The  cross  truly  presaged  his  martyr- 
dom ;  and  although  the  feet  of  Father  Brebeuf  never 
again  sought  the  ungrateful  land  of  the  Neuters,  yet 
his  visit  and  his  vision  were  not  wholly  without  fruit. 
They  endow  local  history  with  an  example  of  pure 
devotion  to  the  betterment  of  others,  unsurpassed  in 
all  the  annals  of  the  holy  orders.  To  Brebeuf  the 
miraculous  cross  foretold  martyrdom,  and  thereby  was 
it  a  sign  of  conquest  and  of  victory  to  this  heroic 
Constantine  of  the  Niagara. 


After  Brebeuf  and  Chaumonot  had  turned  their  backs 
on  the  Neuters,  the  Niagara  region  was  apparently 
unvisited  by  white  men  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  These  were  not,  however,  years  of  peaceful 
hunting  and  still  more  placid  corn  and  pumpkin-growing, 
such  as  some  romantic  writers  have  been  fond  of  ascrib- 
ing to  the  red  men  when  they  were  unmolested  by  the 
whites.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  and  as  Fathers  Dallion, 
Brebeuf  and  Chaumonot  had  discovered,   the  people 


1 8  The  Cross  Bearers. 

who  claimed  the  banks  of  the  lower  reaches  of  the 
Niagara  as  within  their  territory,  were  the  embodiment 
of  all  that  was  vile  and  barbarous.  There  is  no  record 
that  they  had  a  village  at  the  angle  of  lake  and  river, 
where  now  stands  old  Fort  Niagara.  It  would  have 
been  strange,  however,  if  they  did  not  occasionally 
occupy  that  sightly  plateau  with  their  wigwams  or 
huts,  while  they  were  laying  in  a  supply  of  fish.  If 
trees  ever  covered  the  spot  they  were  killed  by  early 
camp-fires,  probably  long  before  the  coming  of  the 
whites.  Among  the  earliest  allusions  to  the  point  is 
one  which  speaks  of  the  difficulty  of  getting  wood 
there ;  and  such  a  treeless  tract,  in  this  part  of  the 
country,  could  usually  be  attributed  to  the  denudation 
consequent  on  Indian  occupancy. 

A  decade  or  so  after  the  retreat  of  the  missionaries 
came  that  fierce  Indian  strife  which  annihilated  the 
Neuters  and  gave  Niagara's  banks  into  the  keeping  of 
the  fiercer  but  somewhat  nobler  Iroquois.  The  story 
of  this  Indian  war  has  been  told  with  all  possible 
illumination  from  the  few  meager  records  that  are 
known ;  and  it  only  concerns  the  present  chronicle  to 
note  that  about  1650  the  site  of  Fort  Niagara  passed 
under  Seneca  domination.  The  Senecas  had  no  per- 
manent town  in  the  vicinity,  but  undoubtedly  made  it 
a  rendezvous  for  war  parties,  and  for  hunting  and  fish- 
ing expeditions. 

Meanwhile,  the  Jesuits  in  their  Relations,  and  after 
them  the  cartographers  in  Europe,  were  making  hear- 
say allusions  to  the  Niagara  or  locating  it,  with  much 


The  Cross  Bearers.  19 

inaccuracy,  on  their  now  grotesque  maps.  In  1648 
the  Jesuit  Ragueneau,  writing  to  the  Superior  at  Paris, 
mentions  Niagara,  which  he  had  never  seen  or  ap- 
proached, as  *^  a  cataract  of  frightful  height."  L'Alle- 
mant  in  the  Relation  published  in  1642,  had  alluded 
to  the  river,  but  not  to  the  fall.  Sanson,  in  1656,  put 
'^  Ongiara  ' '  on  his  famous  map  ;  and  four  years  later  the 
map  of  Creuxius,  published  with  his  great  ^'Historiae 
Canadensis,"  gave  our  river  and  fall  the  Latin  dignity 
of  *' Ongiara  Catarractes. "  One  map-maker  copied 
from  another,  so  that  even  by  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  the  reading  and  student  world  —  small 
and  ecclesiastical  as  it  mostly  was  —  began  to  have 
some  inkling  of  the  main  features  and  continental 
position  of  the  mid-lake  region  for  the  possession  of 
which,  a  little  later,  several  Forts  Niagara  were  to  be 
projected.  It  is  not,  however,  until  1669  that  we 
come  to  another  definite  episode  in  the  history  of  the 
region. 

In  that  year  came  hither  the  Sulpitian  missionaries, 
Francois  Dollier  de  Casson  and  Rene  de  Brehant^  de 
Galinee.  They  were  bent  on  carrying  the  cross  to 
nations  hitherto  unreached,  on  Western  rivers.  With 
them  was  the  young  Robert  Cavelier,  known  as  La  Salle, 
who  was  less  interested  in  carrying  the  cross  than  in 
exploring  the  country.  Their  expedition  left  Montreal 
July  6th,  nine  canoes  in  all.  They  made  their  way 
up  the  St.  Lawrence,  skirted  the  south  shore  of  Lake 
Ontario,  and  on  Aug.   10th  were  at  Irondequoit  Bay. 

1 "  Brehan  de  Gallinee,"  in  Margry.    Shea  has  it  "  Brehaut  de  Galinee." 


20  The  Cross  Bearers. 

They  made  a  most  eventful  visit  to  the  Seneca  villages 
south  of  the  bay.  Thence  they  continued  westward, 
apparently  by  Indian  trails  overland,  and  not  by  canoe. 
De  Galinee,  who  was  the  historian  of  the  expedition, 
says  that  they  came  to  a  river  * '  one  eighth  of  a  league 
broad  and  extremely  rapid,  forming  the  outlet  or 
communication  from  Lake  Erie  to  Lake  Ontario,"  and 
he  continues  with  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  Niag- 
ara Falls,  which,  although  he  passed  near  them,  he  did 
not  turn  aside  to  see.  The  Sulpitians  and  La  Salle 
crossed  the  river,  apparently  below  Lewiston.  They 
may  indeed  have  come  to  the  river  at  its  mouth, 
skirting  the  lake  shore.  One  may  infer  either  course 
from  the  narrative  of  de  Galinee,  which  goes  on  to  say 
that  five  days  after  passing  the  river  they  '*  arrived  at  the 
extremity  of  Lake  Ontario,  where  there  is  a  fine,  large 
sandy  bay  .  .  .  and  where  we  unloaded  our  canoes. ' ' 
Pushing  on  westward,  late  in  September,  on  the  trail 
between  Burlington  Bay  and  the  Grand  River,  they  met 
Joliet,  returning  from  his  expedition  in  search  of  copper 
mines  on  Lake  Superior.  This  meeting  in  the  wilder- 
ness is  a  suggestive  and  picturesque  subject,  but  we 
may  not  dwell  on  it  here.  Joliet,  though  he  had  thus 
preceded  La  Salle  and  the  Sulpitians  in  the  exploration 
of  the  lakes,  had  gone  west  by  the  old  northern  route 
along  the  Ottawa,  Lake  Nipissing  and  the  French  River. 
He  was  never  on  the  Niagara,  for  after  his  meeting 
with  La  Salle,  he  continued  eastward  by  way  of  the 
Grand  River  valley  and  Lake  Ontario.  Fear  of  the 
savages   deterred   him   from   coming   by   way   of  the 


The  Cross  Bearers,  21 

Niagara,  and  thereby,  it  is  not  unlikely,  becoming 
the  white  discoverer  of  Niagara  Falls/  He  was  the 
first  white  man,  so  far  as  records  relate,  to  come  east- 
ward through  the  Detroit  River  and  Lake  Erie.  Our 
lake  was  therefore  *  *  discovered  ' '  from  the  west — a  fact 
perhaps  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  American 
exploration. 

After  the  meeting  with  Joliet,  La  Salle  left  the  mis- 
sionaries, who,  taking  advantage  of  information  had  from 
Joliet,  followed  the  Grand  River  down  to  Lake  Erie. 
Subsequently  they  passed  through  Lake  Erie  to  the  west- 
ward, the  first  of  white  men  to  explore  the  lake  in  that 
direction.  De  Galinee's  map  (1669)  is  the  first  that 
gives  us  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Erie  with  approximate 


1  Why  Joliet  left  the  Lake  Erie  route  on  his  way  east,  for  one  much  more 
difficult,  has  been  a  matter  of  some  discussion.  According  to  the  Abbe 
Galinee,  he  was  induced  to  turn  aside  by  an  Iroquois  Indian  who  had  been 
a  prisoner  among  the  Ottawas.    Joliet  persuaded  the  Ottawas  to  let  this 

Erisoner  return  with  him.  As  they  drew  near  the  Niagara  the  Iroquois 
ecame  afraid  lest  he  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  ancient  enemies  of 
the  Iroquois,  the  Andastes,  although  the  habitat  of  that  people  is  usually 
given  as  from  about  the  site  of  Buffalo  to  the  west  and  southwest.  At 
any  rate  it  was  the  representations  of  this  Iroquois  prisoner  and  guide 
which  apparently  turned  Joliet  into  the  Grand  River  and  kept  him  away 
from  the  Niagara,  The  paragraph  in  de  Galinee  bearing  on  the  matter  is 
as  follows  : 

*'Ce  fut  cet  Iroquois  qui  montra  k  M.  Jolliet  un  nouveau  chemin  que  les 
Francois  n'avoient  point  sceu  jusques  alors  pour  revenir  des  Outaouacs  dans 
le  pays  des  Iroquois.  Cependant  la  crainte  que  ce  sauvage  eut  de  retomber 
entre  les  mains  des  Antastoes  luy  fit  dire  ^  M.  Jolliet  qu'il  falloit  qu'il  quit- 
tast  son  canot  et  marchast  par  terre  plustost  qu'il  n'eust  fallu,  et  mesrae  sans 
cette  terreur  du  sauvage,  M.  Jolliet  eust  pu  venir  par  eau  jusques  dans  le 
lac  Ontario,  en  faisant  un  portage  de  demi-lieue  pour  ^viter  le  grand  sault 
dont  j'ay  dej^  parle,  mais  enhn  il  fut  oblige  par  son  guide  de  faire 
cinquante  lieues  par  terre,  et  abandonner  son  canot  sur  le  bord  du  lac  Erie." 
It  is  singular  that  so  important  a  relation  in  the  history  of  our  region 
has  never  been  published  in  English.  De  Galinee's  original  MS.  Journal  is 
preserved  in  the  Biblioth^ue  Nationale,  in  Paris.  It  was  first  printed  in 
French  by  M.  Pierre  Margry  in  1879  ;  but  five  years  prior  to  that  date  Mr. 
O.  H.  Marshall  of  Buffalo,  having  been  granted  access  to  M.  Margry's 
MS.  copy,  made  e.xtracts,  which  were  printed  in  English  in  1874.  These 
were  only  a  small  portion  of  the  Abbe's  valuable  record.  The  Ontario 
Historical  Society  has  for  some  time  contemplated  the  translation  and 
publication  of  the  complete  Journal  —  a  work  which  students  of  the  early 
history  of  the  lake  region  will  hope  soon  to  see  accomplished. 


22  The  Cross  Bearers. 

accuracy.  On  October  15th  this  devout  man  and  his 
companion  reached  Lake  Erie,  which  they  described 
as  '^a  vast  sea,  tossed  by  tempestuous  winds."  Deterred 
by  the  lateness  of  the  season  from  attempting  further 
travel  by  this  course,  they  determined  to  winter  where 
they  were,  and  built  a  cabin  for  their  shelter. 

Occasionally  they  were  visited  in  their  hut  by 
Iroquois  beaver  hunters.  For  five  months  and  eleven 
days  they  remained  in  their  winter  quarters  and  on  the 
23d  of  March,  1670,  being  Passion  Sunday,  they 
erected  a  cross  as  a  memorial  of  their  long  sojourn. 
The  official  record  of  the  act  is  as  follows  : 

"We  the  undersigned  certify  that  we  have  seen  affixed  on  the 
lands  of  the  lake  called  Eri6  the  arms  of  the  King  of  France  with 
this  inscription  :  *  The  year  of  salvation  1669,  Clement  IX.  being 
seated  in  St.  Peter's  chair,  Louis  XIV.  reigning  in  France,  M.  de 
Courcelle  being  Governor  of  New  France,  and  M.  Talon  being 
intendant  therein  for  the  King,  there  arrived  in  this  place  two 
missionaries  from  Montreal  accompanied  by  seven  other  French- 
men, who,  the  first  of  all  European  peoples,  have  wintered  on  this 
lake,  of  which,  as  of  a  territory  not  occupied,  they  have  taken 
possession  in  the  name  of  their  King  by  the  apposition  of  his 
arms,  which  they  have  attached  to  the  foot  of  this  cross.  In  wit- 
ness whereof  we  have  signed  the  present  certificate.' 

"FRANgOIS  DOLLIER, 
"Priest  of  the  Diocese  of  Nantes  in  Brittany. 

"DE   GALINEE, 
"Deacon  of  the  Diocese  of  Rennes  in  Brittany." 

The  winter  was  exceedingly  mild,  but  the  stream^ 
v/as  still  frozen  on  the  26th  of  March,  when  they  por- 
taged their  canoes  and  goods  to  the  lake   to  resume 

^  Probably  that  now  known  as  Patterson's  Creek. 


The  Cross  Bearers.  23 

their  westward  journey.  Unfortunately  losing  one  of 
their  canoes  in  a  gale  they  were  obliged  to  divide  their 
party,  four  men  with  the  luggage  going  in  the  two 
remaining  canoes;  while  the  rest,  including  the  mis- 
sionaries, undertook  the  wearisome  journey  on  foot  all 
the  way  from  Long  Point  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kettle 
Creek.  De  Galinee  grows  enthusiastic  in  his  admiration 
for  the  immense  quantities  of  game  and  fruits  opposite 
Long  Point  and  calls  the  country  the  terrestrial  Para- 
dise of  Canada.  '■ '  The  grapes  were  as  large  and  as 
sweet  as  the  finest  in  France.  The  wine  made  from 
them  was  as  good  as  z>m  de  Grave. ' '  He  admires  the 
profusion  of  walnuts,  chestnuts,  wild  apples  and  plums. 
Bears  were  fatter  and  better  to  the  palate  than 
the  most  *' savory"  pigs  in  France.  Deer  wandered 
in  herds  of  fifty  to  an  hundred.  Sometimes  even  two 
hundred  would  be  seen  feeding  together.  Before  arriv- 
ing at  the  sand  beach  which  then  connected  Long  Point 
with  the  mainland  they  had  to  cross  two  streams.  To 
cross  the  first  stream  they  were  forced  to  walk  four 
leagues  inland  before  they  found  a  satisfactory  place 
to  cross.  One  whole  day  was  spent  in  constructing  a 
raft  to  cross  Big  Creek,  and  after  another  delay  caused 
by  a  severe  snow-storm,  they  successfully  effected  a 
crossing  and  found  on  the  west  side  a  marshy  meadow 
two  hundred  paces  wide  into  which  they  sank  to  their 
girdles  in  mud  and  slush.  Beset  by  dangers  and  re- 
tarded by  inclement  weather,  they  at  last  arrived  at 
Kettle  Creek,  where  they  expected  to  find  the  canoe 
in  which  Joliet  had  come  down  Lake  Huron  and  the 


24  The  Cross  Bearers. 

Detroit  and  which  he  had  told  them  was  hidden  there. 
Great  was  their  disappointment  to  find  that  the  Indians 
had  taken  it.  However,  later  in  the  day,  while  gath- 
ering some  wood  for  a  fire,  they  found  the  canoe  be- 
tween two  logs  and  joyfully  bore  it  to  the  lake.  In 
the  vicinity  of  their  encampment  the  hunters  failed  to 
secure  any  game,  and  for  four  or  five  days  the  party 
subsisted  on  boiled  maize.  The  whole  party  then 
paddled  up  the  lake  to  a  place  where  game  was  plen- 
tiful and  the  hunters  saw  more  than  two  hundred  deer 
in  one  herd,  but  missed  their  aim.  Disheartened 
at  their  failure  and  craving  meat,  they  shot  and 
skinned  a  miserable  wolf  and  had  it  ready  for  the  kettle 
when  one  of  the  men  saw  some  thirty  deer  on  the 
other  side  of  the  small  lake  they  were  on.  The  party 
succeeded  in  surrounding  the  deer  and,  forcing  them 
into  the  water,  killed  ten  of  them.  Now  well  supplied 
with  both  fresh  and  smoked  meat,  they  continued  their 
journey,  traveled  nearly  fifty  miles  in  one  day  and 
came  to  a  beautiful  sand  beach  (Point  Pelee),  where 
they  drew  up  their  canoes  and  camped  for  the  night. 
During  the  night  a  terrific  gale  came  up  from  the 
northeast.  Awakened  by  the  storm  they  made  all 
shift  to  save  their  canoes  and  cargoes.  Dollier's  and 
de  Galinee's  canoes  were  saved,  but  the  other  one  was 
swept  away  with  its  contents  of  provisions,  goods  for 
barter,  ammunition,  and,  worst  of  all,  the  altar  service, 
with  which  they  intended  establishing  their  mission 
among  the  Pottawatamies. 

The  loss  of  their  altar  service  caused  them  to  aban- 


The  Cross  Bearers.  25 

don  the  mission  and  they  set  out  to  return  to  Montreal, 
but  strangely  enough  chose  the  long,  roundabout 
journey  by  way  of  the  Detroit,  Lake  Huron  and  the 
French  River,  in  preference  to  the  route  by  which  they 
had  come,  or  by  the  outlet  of  Lake  Erie,  which  they  had 
crossed  the  autumn  before.  Thus  de  Galinee  and  Dol- 
lier  de  Casson,  like  Joliet, —  not  to  revert  to  Champlain 
half  a  century  earlier, —  missed  the  opportunity,  which 
seemed  to  wait  for  them,  of  exploring  the  eastern  end 
of  Lake  Erie,  of  correctly  mapping  the  Niagara  and 
observing  and  describing  its  incomparable  cataract. 
Obviously  the  Niagara  region  was  shunned  less  on 
account  of  its  real  difficulties,  which  were  not  then 
known,  than  through  terror  of  the  Iroquois.  Our  two 
Sulpitians  reached  Montreal  June  18,  1670,  which 
date  marks  the  close  of  the  third  missionary  visitation 
in  the  history  of  the  Niagara. 


And  now  I  approach  the  point  at  which  many  writers 
of  our  local  history  have  chosen  to  begin  their  story — 
the  famous  expedition  of  La  Salle  and  his  companions 
in  1678-'79.  For  the  purpose  of  the  present  study  we 
may  omit  the  more  familiar  aspects  of  that  adventure, 
and  limit  our  regard  to  the  acts  of  the  holy  men  who 
continue  the  interrupted  chain  of  missionary  work  on  the 
Niagara.  On  December  6th,  St.  Nicholas  Day,  1678, 
with  an  advance  party  under  La  Motte  de  Lussiere, 
came  the  Flemish  Recollect,  Louis  Hennepin.  As  the 
bark  in  which  they  had  crossed  stormy  Lake  Ontario 
at  length  entered  the  Niagara,  they  chanted  the  Am- 


26  The  Cross  Bearers. 

brosian  hymn,  **Te  Deum  Laudamus,"  and  there  is 
no  gainsaying  the  sincerity  of  that  thank-offering  for 
perils  escaped.  Five  days  later,  being  encamped  on 
the  present  site  of  Niagara,  Ont.,  Father  Hennepin 
celebrated  the  first  mass  ever  said  in  the  vicinity.  A 
few  days  later,  on  the  site  of  Lewiston,  he  had  com- 
pleted a  bark  chapel,  in  which  was  held  the  first  Chris- 
tian service  which  had  been  held  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Niagara  since  the  visit  of  Brebeuf  thirty-eight  years 
before.  Father  Hennepin  has  left  abundant  chronicles 
of  his  activities  on  the  Niagara.  As  soon  as  the  con- 
struction of  the  Griffon  was  begun  above  the  falls  a 
chapel  was  established  there,  near  the  mouth  of  Cayuga 
Creek.  Having  blessed  this  pioneer  vessel  of  the 
upper  lakes,  when  she  was  launched,  he  set  out  for 
Fort  Frontenac  in  the  interests  of  the  enterprise,  and 
was  accompanied  to  the  Niagara,  on  his  return,  by  the 
Superior  of  the  mission.  Father  Gabriel  de  la  Ribourde, 
and  Fathers  Zenobius  Membre  and  Melithon  Watteaux. 
All  through  that  summer  these  devoted  priests  shared 
the  varied  labors  of  the  camp.  Hennepin  tells  us  how 
he  and  his  companions  toiled  back  and  forth  over  the 
portage  around  the  falls,  sometimes  with  their  por- 
table altar,  sometimes  with  provisions,  rigging  or  other 
equipment  for  the  ship.  *' Father  Gabriel,"  he  says, 
*' though  of  sixty-five  years  of  age,  bore  with  great 
vigor  the  fatigue  of  that  journey,  and  went  thrice  up 
and  down  those  three  mountains,  which  are  pretty  high 
and  steep. ' '  This  glimpse  of  the  saintly  old  priest  is 
a  reminiscence  to  cherish  in  our  local  annals.     He  was 


The  Cross  Bearers.  27 

the  last  of  a  noble  family  in  Burgundy  who  gave  up 
worldly  wealth  and  station  to  enter  the  Order  of  St. 
Francis.  He  came  to  Canada  in  1670,  and  was  the 
first  Superior  of  the  restored  Recollect  mission  in  that 
country.  There  is  a  discrepancy  between  Hennepin 
and  Le  Clercq  as  to  his  age ;  the  former  says  he  was 
sixty-five  years  old  in  1679,  when  he  was  on  the  Niag- 
ara ;  the  later  speaks  of  him  as  being  in  his  seventieth 
year  in  1680.  Of  the  three  missionaries  who  with 
La  Salle  sailed  up  the  Niagara  in  August,  1679,  and 
with  prayers  and  hymns  boldly  faced  the  dangers  of 
the  unknown  lake,  the  venerable  Father  Gabriel  was 
first  of  all  to  receive  the  martyr's  crown.  A  year 
later,  September  9,  1680,  while  engaged  at  his  devo- 
tions, he  was  basely  murdered  by  three  Indians.  To 
Father  Membre  there  were  allotted  five  years  of  mis- 
sionary labor  before  he,  too,  was  to  fall  a  victim  to 
the  savage.  Father  Hennepin  lived  many  years,  and 
his  chronicles  stand  to-day  as  in  some  respects  the 
foundation  of  our  local  history.  But  cherish  as  we  may 
the  memory  of  this  trio  of  missionaries,  the  imagi- 
nation turns  with  a  yet  fonder  regard  back  to  the 
devoted  priest  who  was  not  permitted  to  voyage  west- 
ward from  the  Niagara  with  the  gallant  La  Salle. 
When  the  Griffon  sailed.  Father  Melithon  Watteaux 
was  left  behind  in  the  little  palisaded  house  at  Niagara 
as  chaplain.  He  takes  his  place  in  our  history  as  the 
first  Catholic  priest  appointed  to  minister  to  whites  in 
New  York  State.  On  May  27,  1679,  La  Salle  had  made 
a  grant  of  land  at  Niagara  to  these  Recollect  Fathers, 


28  The  Cross  Bearers, 

for  a  residence  and  cemetery,  and  this  was  the  first 
property  in  the  present  State  of  New  York  to  which 
the  Catholic  Church  held  title.  Who  can  say  what 
were  the  experiences  of  the  priest  during  the  succeed- 
ing winter  in  the  loneliness  and  dangers  of  the  savage- 
infested  wilderness?  Nowhere  have  I  as  yet  found 
any  detailed  account  of  his  sojourn.  We  know,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  not  long.  During  the  succeeding 
years  there  was  some  passing  to  and  fro.  In  1680  La 
Salle,  returning  east,  passed  the  site  of  his  ruined  and 
abandoned  fort.  He  was  again  on  the  Niagara  in  1681 
with  a  considerable  party  bound  for  the  Miami. 
Father  Membre,  who  was  with  him,  returned  east  in 
October,  1682,  by  the  Niagara  route  j  and  La  Salle  him- 
self passed  down  the  river  again  in  1683 — his  last  visit  to 
the  Niagara.  His  blockhouse,  within  which  was  Father 
Melithon's  chapel,  had  been  burned  by  the  Senecas. 

From  this  time  on  for  over  half  a  century  the 
missionary  work  in  our  region  centered  at  Fort  Niag- 
ara, which  still  stands,  a  manifold  reminder  of  the 
romantic  past,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Four  years 
after  La  Salle's  last  passage  through  the  Niagara  —  in 
1687  —  the  Marquis  de  Denonville  led  his  famous 
expedition  against  the  Senecas.  With  him  in  this  cam- 
paign was  a  band  of  Western  Indians,  who  were  attend- 
ed by  the  Jesuit  Father  Enjalran.  He  was  wounded 
in  the  battle  with  the  Senecas  near  Boughton  Hill,  but 
appears  to  have  accompanied  de  Denonville  to  his 
rendezvous  on  the  site  of  Fort  Niagara.  Here  he  un- 
doubtedly exercised  his  sacred  office  ;  and  since  the 


The  Cross  Bearers,  29 

construction  of  Fort  Niagara  began  at  this  time  his 
name  may  head  the  list  of  priests  officiating  at  that 
stronghold.  He  was  soon  after  dispatched  on  a  peace 
mission  to  the  West,  which  was  the  special  scene  of 
his  labors.  His  part,  for  some  years  to  come,  was  to 
be  an  important  one  as  Superior  of  the  Jesuit  Mission 
at  Michillimackinac. 

As  soon  as  Fort  Niagara  was  garrisoned,  Father  Jean 
de  Lamberville  was  sent  thither  as  chaplain.  For 
the  student,  it  would  be  profitable  to  dwell  at  length 
upon  the  ministrations  of  this  devoted  priest.  He  was 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  had  come  out  to  Canada  in 
1668,  and  labored  in  the  Onondaga  mission  from  1671 
to  1687.  His  work  is  indelibly  written  on  the  history 
of  missions  in  our  State.  He  was  the  innocent  cause 
of  a  party  of  Iroquois  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
French,  who  sent  them  to  France,  where  they  toiled 
in  the  king's  galleys.  When  de  Denonville,  in  1687, 
left  at  Fort  Niagara  a  garrison  of  one  hundred  men  under 
the  Chevalier  de  la  Mothe,  Father  Lamberville  came  to 
minister  to  them.  The  hostile  Iroquois  had  been  dealt 
a  heavy  blow,  but  a  more  insidious  and  dreadful  enemy 
soon  appeared  within  the  gates.  The  provisions  which 
had  been  left  for  the  men  proved  utterly  unfit  for  food, 
so  that  disease,  with  astounding  swiftness,  swept  away 
most  of  the  garrison,  including  the  commander.  Father 
Lamberville,  himself,  was  soon  stricken  down  with  the 
scurvy.  Every  man  in  the  fort  would  no  doubt  have 
perished  but  for  the  timely  arrival  of  a  party  of  friendly 
Miami   Indians,   through  whose  good  offices  the  few 


30  The  Cross  Bearers. 

survivors,  Father  Lamberville  among  them,  were  en- 
abled to  make  their  way  to  Catarouquoi  —  now  Kings- 
ton, Ont.  There  he  recovered ;  and  he  continued  in 
the  Canadian  missions  until  1698,  when  he  returned  to 
France. 

Not  willing  to  see  his  ambitious  fort  on  the  Niagara 
so  soon  abandoned,  de  Denonville  sent  out  a  new  gar- 
rison and  with  them  came  Father  Pierre  Milet.  He 
had  labored,  with  rich  results,  among  the  Onondagas 
and  Oneidas.  No  sooner  was  he  among  his  country- 
men, in  this  remote  and  forlorn  corner  of  the  earth, 
than  he  took  up  his  spiritual  work  with  characteristic 
zeal.  On  Good  Friday  of  that  year,  1688,  in  the 
center  of  the  square  within  the  palisades,  he  caused  to 
be  erected  a  great  cross.  It  was  of  wood,  eighteen 
feet  high,  hewn  from  the  forest  trees  and  neatly  framed. 
On  the  arms  of  it  was  carved  in  abbreviated  words  the 
sacred  legend,  ' '  Regnat,  Vinctt,  hnperat  Christus^ ' '  and 
in  the  midst  of  it  was  engraven  the  Sacred  Heart. 
Surrounded  by  the  officers  of  the  garrison, —  gallant 
men  of  France,  with  shining  records,  some  of  them 
were, —  by  the  soldiers,  laborers  and  friendly  Indians, 
Father  Milet  solemnly  blessed  it.  Can  you  not  see 
the  little  band,  kneeling  about  that  symbol  of  con- 
quest? Around  them  were  the  humble  cabins  and 
quarters  of  the  soldiers.  One  of  them,  holding  the 
altar,  was  consecrated  to  worship.  Beyond  ran  the 
palisades  and  earthworks  —  feeble  fortifications  be- 
tween the  feeble  garrison  and  the  limitless,  foe-infested 
wilderness.     On  one  hand  smiled  the  blue  Ontario, 


The  Cross  Bearers.  31 

and  at  their  feet  ran  the  gleaming  Niagara,  already  a 
synonym  of  hardship  and  suffering  in  the  annals  of 
three  of  the  religious  orders.  What  wonder  that  the 
sense  of  isolation  and  feebleness  was  borne  in  upon 
the  little  band,  or  that  they  devoutly  bowed  before  the 
cross  which  was  the  visible  emblem  of  their  strength 
and  consolation  in  the  wilderness.  Where  is  the  artist 
who  shall  paint  us  this  scene,  unique  in  the  annals  of 
any  people  ? 

And  yet,  but  a  few  months  later — September  15th 
of  that  year  —  the  garrison  was  recalled,  the  post 
abandoned,  the  palisades  broken  down,  the  cabins  left 
rifled  and  empty ;  and  when  priest  and  soldiers  had 
sailed  away,  and  only  the  prowling  wolf  or  the  stealthy 
Indian  ventured  near  the  spot.  Father  Milet's  great 
cross  still  loomed  amid  the  solitude,  a  silent  witness  of 
the  faith  which  knows  no  vanquishing. 

There  followed  an  interim  in  the  occupancy  of  the 
Niagara  when  neither  sword  nor  altar  held  sway  here  ; 
nor  was  the  altar  reestablished  in  our  region  until  the 
permanent  rebuilding  of  Fort  Niagara  in  1726.  True, 
Father  Charlevoix  passed  up  the  river  in  1721,  and  has 
left  an  interesting  account  of  his  journey,  his  view  of 
the  falls,  and  his  brief  tarrying  at  the  carrying-place  — 
now  Lewiston.  This  spot  was  the  principal  rendezvous 
of  the  region  for  many  years ;  and  here,  at  the  cabin 
of  the  interpreter  Joncaire,  where  Father  Charlevoix 
was  received,  we  may  be  sure  that  spiritual  ministra- 
tions were  not  omitted.  A  somewhat  similar  incident, 
twenty-eight    years   later,    was   the   coming   to   these 


32  The  Cross  Beare7^s. 

shores  of  the  Jesuit  Father  Bonnecamps.  He  was  not 
only  the  spiritual  leader  but  appears  to  have  acted  as 
pilot  and  guide  to  De  Celoron's  expedition  —  an 
abortive  attempt  on  the  part  of  Louis  XV.  to  reestab- 
lish the  claims  of  France  to  the  inland  regions  of 
America.  The  expedition  came  up  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  through  Lake  Ontario,  reaching  Fort  Niagara  on 
July  6,  1749.  It  passed  up  the  river,  across  to  the  south 
shore  of  Lake  Erie  and  by  way  of  Chautauqua  Lake 
and  the  Allegheny  down  the  Ohio.  Returning  from 
its  utterly  futile  adventure,  we  find  the  party  resting 
at  Fort  Niagara  for  three  days,  October  19-21.  Who 
the  resident  chaplain  was  at  the  post  at  that  date  I 
have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  j  but  we  may  be  sure 
that  he  had  a  glad  greeting  for  Father  Bonnecamps. 
From  1726,  when,  as  already  mentioned,  the  fort  was 
rebuilt,  until  its  surrender  to  Sir  Wm.  Johnson  in 
1759,  a  garrison  was  continually  maintained,  and  with- 
out doubt  was  constantly  attended  by  a  chaplain. 
The  register  of  the  post  during  these  years  has  never 
been  found  —  the  presumption  being  that  it  was 
destroyed  by  the  English  —  so  that  the  complete  list 
of  priests  who  ministered  there  is  not  known. 

Only  here  and  there  from  other  sources  do  we  glean 
a  name  by  which  to  continue  the  succession.  Father 
Crespel  was  stationed  at  Fort  Niagara  for  about  three 
years  from  1729,  interrupting  his  ministrations  there 
with  a  journey  to  Detroit,  where  his  order  —  the 
Society  of  Jesus  —  had  established  a  mission.  Of  Fort 
Niagara  at  this  time  he  says:      **I    found   the   place 


The  Cross  Bearers,  33 

very  agreeable ;  hunting  and  fishing  were  very  pro- 
ductive ;  the  woods  in  their  greatest  beauty,  and  full  of 
walnut  and  chestnut  trees,  oaks,  elms  and  some  others, 
far  superior  to  any  we  see  in  France. ' '  But  not  even  the 
banks  of  the  Niagara  were  to  prove  an  earthly  paradise. 
''The  fever,"  he  continues,  ''soon  destroyed  the 
pleasures  we  began  to  find,  and  much  incommoded  us, 
until  the  beginning  of  autumn,  which  season  dispelled 
the  unwholesome  air.  We  passed  the  winter  very  quietly, 
and  would  have  passed  it  very  agreeably,  if  the  vessel 
which  was  to  have  brought  us  refreshments  had  not 
encountered  a  storm  on  the  lake,  and  been  obliged  to 
put  back  to  Frontenac,  which  laid  us  under  the  necessity 
of  drinking  nothing  but  water.  As  the  winter  advanced, 
she  dared  not  proceed,  and  we  did  not  receive  our 
stores  till  May. ' ' 

Remember  the  utter  isolation  of  this  post  and  mis- 
sion at  the  period  we  are  considering.  To  be  sure,  it 
was  a  link  in  the  chain  of  French  posts,  which  included 
Quebec,  Montreal,  Kingston,  Niagara,  Detroit,  Michilli- 
mackinac ;  but  in  winter  the  water  route  for  transport 
was  closed,  and  Niagara,  like  the  upper  posts,  was 
thrown  on  its  own  resources  for  existence.  There  is 
no  place  in  our  domain  to-day  which  fairly  may  be 
compared  to  it  for  isolation  and  remoteness.  The 
upper  reaches  of  Alaskan  rivers  are  scarcely  less  known 
to  the  world  than  was  the  Niagara  at  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century.  A  little  fringe  of  settlement  —  hos- 
tile settlement  at  that  —  stretched  up  the  Hudson  from 
New  York.     Even  the  Mohawk  Valley  was  still  unset- 


34  The  Cross  Bearers. 

tied.  From  the  Hudson  to  the  remotest  West  the 
wilderness  stretched  as  a  sea,  and  Fort  Niagara  was 
buried  in  its  midst.  Although  a  full  century  had  gone 
by  since  Father  Dallion  first  reached  its  shores,  there 
was  now  no  trace  of  white  men  on  the  banks  of  the  Niag- 
ara save  at  the  fort  at  its  moutlr,  where  Father  Crespel 
ministered,  and  at  the  carrying-place,  where  Joncaire 
the  interpreter  lived  with  the  Indians.  Not  even  the 
first  Indian  villages  on  Buffalo  Creek  were  to  be  estab- 
lished for  half  a  century  to  come. 

After  Father  Crespel' s  return  from  Detroit,  he  re- 
mained two  years  longer  at  Fort  Niagara,  caring  for 
the  spiritual  life  of  the  little  garrison,  and  learning  the 
Iroquois  and  Ottawah  languages  well  enough  to  con- 
verse with  the  Indians.  ''This  enabled  me,"  he 
writes,  ''to  enjoy  their  company  when  I  took  a  walk 
in  the  environs  of  our  post."  The  ability  to  converse 
with  the  Indians  afterwards  saved  his  life.  When  his 
three  years  of  residence  at  Niagara  expired  he  was 
relieved,  according  to  the  custom  of  his  order,  and  he 
passed  a  season  in  the  convent  at  Quebec.  While  he 
was  undoubtedly  immediately  succeeded  at  Niagara  by 
another  chaplain,  I  have  been  unable  to  learn  his  name 
or  aught  of  his  ministrations.  Indeed,  there  are  but 
few  glimpses  of  the  post  to  be  had  from  1733  to  1759, 
when  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  of  these  is  of  the  visit  of  the  Sulpitian 
missionary,  the  Abbe  Piquet,  who  in  1751  came  to  Fort 
Niagara  from  his  successful  mission  at  La  Presentation — 
now  Ogdensburg.     It  is  recorded  of  him  that  while  here 


The  Cross  Bearers,  35 

he  exhorted  the  Senecas  to  beware  of  the  white  man's 
brandy  ;  his  name  may  perhaps  stand  as  that  of  the  first 
avowed  temperance  worker  in  the  Niagara  region. 

But  the  end  of  the  French  regime  was  at  hand.  For 
more  than  a  century  our  home  region  had  been  claimed 
by  France ;  for  the  last  thirty-three  years  the  lily- 
strewn  standard  of  Louis  had  flaunted  defiance  to  the 
English  from  the  banks  of  the  Niagara.  Now  on  a 
scorching  July  day  the  little  fort  found  itself  surrounded, 
with  Sir  Wm.  Johnson's  cannon  roaring  from  the 
wilderness.  There  was  a  gallant  defense,  a  baptism  of 
fire  and  blood,  an  honorable  capitulation.  But  in  that 
fierce  conflict  at  least  one  of  the  consecrated  soldiers 
of  the  cross  —  Father  Claude  Virot  —  fell  before  British 
bullets  ;  and  when  the  triple  cross  of  Britain  floated  over 
Fort  Niagara,  the  last  altar  raised  by  the  French  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Niagara  river  had  been  overthrown. 


On  this  eventful  day  in  1759,  when  seemingly  the 
opportunities  for  the  Catholic  Church  to  continue  its 
work  on  the  Niagara  were  at  an  end,  there  was,  in  the 
poor  parish  of  Maryborough,  county  Kildare,  Ireland, 
a  little  lad  of  six  whose  mission  it  was  to  be  to  bring 
hither  again  the  blessed  offices  of  his  faith.  This  was 
Edmund  Burke,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Zion,  and  first 
Vicar-Apostolic  of  Nova  Scotia,  but  whose  name  shines 
not  less  in  the  annals  of  his  church  because  of  his  zeal 
as  missionary  in  Upper  Canada.  Having  come  to 
Quebec  in  1786,  he  was,  in  1794,  commissioned  Vicar- 
General  for  the  whole  of  Upper  Canada  —  the  province 


36  The  Cross  Bearers, 

having  then  been  established  two  years.  In  that  year 
we  find  him  at  Niagara,  where  he  was  the  first  English- 
speaking  priest  to  hold  Catholic  service.  True,  there 
was  at  the  post  that  year  a  French  missionary  named 
Le  Dru,  who  could  speak  English  ;  but  he  had  been 
ordered  out  of  the  province  for  cause.  The  field  was 
ripe  for  a  man  of  Father  Burke's  character  and  energy. 
His  early  mission  was  near  Detroit ;  he  was  the  first 
English-speaking  priest  in  Ohio,  and  it  is  worthy  of 
note  that  he  was  at  Niagara  on  his  way  east,  July  22, 
1796  —  only  three  weeks  before  the  British  finally 
evacuated  Fort  Niagara  and  the  Americans  took  pos- 
session. Through  his  efforts  in  that  year,  the  Church 
procured  a  large  lot  at  Niagara,  Ont.,  where  he  pro- 
posed a  missionary  establishment.  There  had  probably 
never  been  a  time,  since  the  English  conquest,  when 
there  had  not  been  Catholics  among  the  troops  quar- 
tered on  the  Niagara ;  but  under  a  British  and  Protestant 
commandant  no  suitable  provision  for  their  worship  had 
been  made.  In  1798  —  two  years  after  the  British  had 
relinquished  the  fort  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  to  the 
Americans — Father  Burke,  being  at  the  British  garrison 
on  the  Canadian  side,  wrote  to  Monseigneur  Plessis : 

Here  I  am  at  Niagara,  instead  of  having  carried  out  my  original 
design  of  going  on  to  Detroit,  thence  returning  to  Kingston  to 
pass  the  winter.  The  commander  of  the  garrison,  annoyed  by 
the  continual  complaints  of  the  civic  officials  against  the  Catholic 
soldiers,  who  used  to  frequent  the  taverns  during  the  hours  of 
service  on  Sunday,  gave  orders  that  officers  and  men  should  attend 
the  Protestant  service.  They  had  attended  for  three  consecutive 
Sundays  when  I  represented  to  the  commander  the  iniquity  of  this 


The  Cross  Bearers.  37 

order.  He  replied  that  he  would  send  them  to  mass  if  the  chap- 
lain was  there,  and  he  thought  it  very  extraordinary  that  whilst  a 
chaplain  was  paid  by  the  king  for  the  battalion,  instead  of  attend- 
ing to  his  duty  he  should  be  in  charge  of  a  mission,  his  men  were 
without  religious  services,  and  his  sick  were  dying  without  the 
sacraments.  You  see,  therefore,  that  I  have  reason  for  stopping 
short  at  Niagara  ;  for  we  must  not  permit  four  companies,  of 
whom  three  fourths  both  of  officers  and  men  are  Catholics,  to 
frequent  the  Protestant  church. 

The  name  of  the  priest  against  whom  the  charge 
of  neglect  appears  to  lie,  was  Duval;  but  it  is  not 
clear  that  he  had  ever  attended  the  troops  to  the 
Niagara  station.  But  after  Father  Burke  came  Father 
Desjardines  and  an  unbroken  succession,  with  the  dis- 
trict fully  organized  in  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 


And  now,  although  our  story  of  mission  work  in  the 
Niagara  region  has  been  long  —  has  reviewed  the  visi- 
tations of  two  centuries  —  the  reader  may  have  re- 
marked the  striking  fact  that  every  priest  who  came 
into  our  territory,  up  to  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  came  from  Canada.  This  fact  is  the  more 
remarkable  when  we  recall  the  long-continued  and  vig- 
orous missions  of  the  Jesuits  in  what  is  now  New  York 
State,  extending  west  nearly  to  the  Genesee  River.  But 
the  fact  stands  that  no  priest  from  those  early  establish- 
ments made  his  way  westward  to  the  present  site  of 
Buffalo.  Fathers  Lamberville  and  Milet  had  been  sta- 
tioned among  the  Onondagas  and  Oneidas  before  com- 
ing into  our  region  at  Fort  Niagara;  but  they  came 
thither  from  Canada,  by  way  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  not 


38  The  Cross  Bearers. 

through  the  wilderness  of  Western  New  York.  The 
westernmost  mission  among  the  Iroquois  was  that  of 
Fathers  Carheil  and  Gamier  at  Cayuga,  where  they 
were  at  work  ten  years  before  La  Salle  built  the  Griffon 
on  the  Niagara.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this 
mission,  which  was  established  nearest  to  our  own 
region,  was  ^'dedicated  to  God  under  the  invocation 
of  St.  Joseph,"  and  that,  two  hundred  years  after,  the 
first  Bishop  of  Buffalo  obtained  from  his  Holiness, 
Pope  Pius  IX.,  permission  that  St.  Joseph  should  be 
the  principal  patron  saint  of  this  diocese. 

The  earliest  episcopal  jurisdiction  of  the  territory 
now  embraced  in  the  city  of  Buffalo,  dating  from  the 
first  visit  of  Dallion  to  the  land  of  the  Neuters,  was 
directly  vested  in  the  diocese  of  Rouen  —  for  it  was 
the  rule  that  regions  new-visited  belonged  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  bishop  from  a  port  in  whose  diocese 
the  expedition  bearing  the  missionary  had  sailed ;  and 
this  stood  until  a  local  ecclesiastical  government  was 
formed ;  the  first  ecclesiastical  association  of  our  re- 
gion, on  the  New  York  side,  therefore,  is  with  that 
grand  old  city,  Rouen,  the  home  of  La  Salle,  scene  of 
the  martyrdom  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  and  the  center, 
through  many  centuries,  of  mighty  impulses  affecting 
the  New  World.  From  1657  to  1670  our  region  was 
embraced  in  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Vicar  Apostolic  of 
New  France  ;  and  from  1670  to  the  Conquest  in  the 
diocese  of  Quebec.  There  are  involved  here,  of 
course,  all  the  questions  which  grew  out  of  the  strife 
for  possession   of  the   Niagara  region  by  the  French, 


The  Cross  Bearers,  39 

English  and  Dutch.  Into  these  questions  we  may  not 
enter  now  further  than  to  note  that  from  1684  the  Eng- 
lish claimed  jurisdiction  of  all  the  region  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Niagara  and  the  present  site  of  Buffalo. 
This  claim  was  in  part  based  on  the  Treaty  of  Albany 
at  which  the  Senecas  had  signified  their  allegiance  to 
King  Charles  ;  and  by  that  acquiescence  nominally  put 
the  east  side  of  the  Niagara  under  British  rule.  The 
next  year,  when  the  Duke  of  York  came  to  the  throne, 
he  decreed  that  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  should 
hold  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  over  the  whole  Colony 
of  New  York.  It  is  very  doubtful,  however,  if  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  ever  heard  of  the  Niag- 
ara —  the  first  English  translation  of  Hennepin  did  not 
appear  for  fourteen  years  after  this  date ;  and  nothing 
is  more  unlikely  than  that  the  Senecas  who  visited  the 
Niagara  at  this  period,  or  even  the  Dutch  and  English 
traders  who  gave  them  rum  for  beaver-skins,  had  ever 
heard  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  or  cared  a 
copper  for  his  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  either  on  the 
Niagara  or  even  in  the  settlements  on  the  Hudson.  In 
the  New  York  Colony,  and  afterward  State,  the  legal 
discrimination  against  Catholics  continued  down  to 
1784,  when  the  law  which  condemned  Catholic  priests 
to  imprisonment  or  even  death  was  repealed.  At  the 
date  of  its  repeal  there  was  not  a  Catholic  congrega- 
tion in  the  State.  Those  Catholics  who  were  among 
the  pioneer  settlers  of  Western  New  York  had  to  go  as 
far  east  as  Albany  to  perform  their  religious  duties  or 
get  their  children  baptized.      Four   years   later  —  in 


40  The  Cross  Bearers. 

1788  —  our  region  was  included  in  the  newly-formed 
diocese  of  Baltimore.  In  1808  we  came  into  the  new 
diocese  of  New  York.  Not  until  1821  do  we  find 
record  of  the  visit  of  a  priest  to  Buffalo.  In  1829  the 
Church  acquired  its  first  property  here  —  through  its 
benefactor  whose  name  and  memory  are  preserved  by 
one  of  our  noblest  institutions  —  Louis  Le  Couteulx  — 
and  the  first  Buffalo  parish  was  established  under  the 
Rev.  Nicholas  Mertz. 

We  are  coming  very  close  to  the  present ;  and  yet 
still  later,  in  1847,  when  the  diocese  of  Buffalo  was 
formed,  there  were  but  sixteen  priests  in  the  sixteen 
great  counties  which  constituted  it.  It  is  superfluous 
to  contrast  that  time  with  the  present.  There  is  noth- 
ing more  striking,  to  the  student  of  the  history  and 
development  of  our  region  during  the  last  half  century, 
than  the  increase  of  the  Catholic  Church  —  in  parishes 
and  schools,  in  means  of  propaganda,  in  material  wealth 
with  its  vast  resources  and  power  for  good,  and  espec- 
ially in  that  personal  zeal  and  unflagging  devotion 
which  know  no  limit  and  no  exhaustion,  and  are  drawn 
from  the  same  source  of  strength  that  inspired  and  sus- 
tained Brebeuf  and  Chaumonot  and  their  fellow-heroes 
of  the  cross  on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara. 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch. 


THE  PASCHAL  OF  THE  GREAT  PINCH, 


An  Episode  in  the  History  of  Fort  Niagara ;  being  an  Extract 
from  the  hitherto  unknown  Memoirs  of  the  Chevalier  De  Tre- 
gay.  Lieutenant  under  the  Sieur  de  Troyes,  commanding  at 
Fort  Denonville  {noiv  called  Niagara'),  in  the  Year  of  Starva- 
tion ibSy ;  with  Captain  Dhbergeres  at  that  remote  fortress 
from  the  joy  full  Easter  of  1688  till  its  abandonment ;  Soldier 
of  His  Excellency  the  Sr.  de  Brissay,  Marquis  de  Denonville, 
Governor  and  Lieutenant  GeHeralin  New  France  ;  and  humble 
Servitor  of  His  Serene  Majesty  Louis  XIV. 

IT  HAS  BEEN  my  lot  to  suffer  in  many  far  parts  of 
the  earth ;  to  bleed  a  little  and  go  hungry  for  the 
King ;  to  lie  freezing  for  fame  and  France  —  and 
gain  nothing  thereby  but  a  distemper ;  but  so  it  is  to 
be  a  soldier. 

And  I  have  seen  trouble  in  my  day.  I  have  fought 
in  Flanders  on  an  empty  stomach,  and  have  burned  my 
brain  among  the  Spaniards  so  that  I  could  neither  fight 
nor  run  away  ;  but  of  all  the  heavy  employment  I  ever 
knew,  naught  can  compare  with  what  befel  in  the 
remote  parts  of  New  France,  where  I  was  with  the 
troops  that  the  Marquis  de  Denonville  took  through 
the  wilderness  into  the  cantons  of  the  Iroquois,  and 
afterwards  employed  to  build  a  stockade  and  cabins  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Strait  of  Niagara,  on  the  east  side, 
in  the  way  where  they  go  a  beaver-hunting.      "Fort 


44       The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch. 

Denonville, ' '  the  Sieur  de  Brissay  decreed  it  should  be 
called,  for  he  held  great  hopes  of  the  service  which  it 
should  do  him  against  both  the  Iroquois  and  the  Eng- 
lish ;  but  now  that  he  has  fallen  into  the  disfavor  -that 
has  ever  been  the  reward  of  faithful  service  in  this 
accursed  land,  his  name  is  no  more  given  even  to  that 
unhappy  spot,  but  rather  it  is  called  Fort  Niagara. 

There  were  some  hundreds  of  us  all  told  that  reached 
that  fair  plateau,  after  we  left  the  river  of  the  Senecas. 
It  was  mid-summer  of  the  year  of  grace  1687,  and  we 
made  at  first  a  pleasant  camp,  somewhat  overlooking 
the  great  lake,  while  to  the  west  side  of  the  point  the 
great  river  made  good  haven  for  our  batteaux  and 
canoes.  There  was  fine  stir  of  air  at  night,  so  that  we 
slept  wholesomely,  and  the  wounded  began  to  mend  at 
a  great  rate.  And  of  a  truth,  tho'  I  have  adventured 
in  many  lands,  I  have  seen  no  spot  which  in  all  its 
demesne  offered  a  fairer  prospect  to  a  man  of  taste. 
On  the  north  of  us,  like  the  great  sea  itself,  lay  the 
Lake  Ontario,  which  on  a  summer  morning,  when 
touched  by  a  little  wind,  with  the  sun  aslant,  was  like 
the  lapis  lazuli  I  have  seen  in  the  King's  palace  — 
very  blue,  yet  all  bright  with  white  and  gold.  The 
river  behind  the  camp  ran  mightily  strong,  yet  for  the 
most  part  glassy  and  green  like  the  precious  green-stone 
the  lapidaries  call  verd-antique.  Behind  us  to  the  south 
lay  the  forest,  and  four  leagues  away  rose  the  triple 
mountains  wherein  is  the  great  fall ;  but  these  are  not 
such  mountains  as  we  have  in  Italy  and  Spain,  being 
more  of  the  nature  of  a  great  table-land,  making  an 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch.       45 

exceeding  hard  portage   to   reach   the  Strait  of  Erie 
above  the  great  fall. 

It  was  truly  a  most  fit  place  for  a  fort,  and  the  Mar- 
quis de  Denonville  let  none  in  his  command  rest  day 
or  night  until  we  had  made  a  fortification,  in  part  of 
earth,  surmounted  by  palisades  which  the  soldiers  cut 
in  the  woods.  There  was  much  of  hazard  and  fatigue 
in  this  work,  for  the  whole  plain  about  the  fort  had  no 
trees;  so  that  some  of  us  went  into  the  forest  along 
the  shore  to  the  eastward  and  some  cut  their  sticks  on 
the  west  side  of  the  river.  It  was  hard  work,  getting 
them  up  the  high  bank  \  but  so  pressed  were  we,  some- 
what by  fear  of  an  attack,  and  even  more  by  the  zeal 
of  our  commander,  that  in  three  days  we  had  built 
there  a  pretty  good  fort  with  four  bastions,  where  we 
put  two  great  guns  and  some  pattareras;  and  we  had 
begun  to  build  some  cabins  on  the  four  sides  of  the 
square  in  the  middle  of  it.  And  as  we  worked,  our 
number  was  constantly  diminished  ;  for  the  Sieurs  Du 
Luth  and  Durantaye,  with  that  one-handed  Chevalier 
de  Tonty  of  whom  they  tell  so  much,  and  our  allies 
the  savages  who  had  come  from  the  Illinois  to  join  the 
Governor  in  his  assault  upon  the  Iroquois,  as  soon  as 
their  wounded  were  able  to  be  moved,  took  themselves 
off  up  the  Niagara  and  over  the  mountain  portage  I 
have  spoken  of ;  for  they  kept  a  post  and  place  of  trade 
at  the  Detroit,  and  at  Michillimackinac.  And  then 
presently  the  Marquis  himself  and  all  whom  he  would 
let  go  sailed  away  around  the  great  lake  for  Montreal. 
But  he  ordered  that  an  hundred,  officers  and  men,  stay 


46       The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch. 

behind  to  hold  this  new  Fort  Denonville.  He 
had  placed  in  command  over  us  the  Sieur  de 
Troyes,  of  whom  it  would  not  become  me  to  speak  in 
any  wise  ill. 

There  were  sour  looks  and  sad,  as  the  main  force 
marched  to  the  batteaux.  But  the  Marquis  did  not 
choose  to  heed  anything  of  that.  We  were  put  on 
parade  for  the  embarkation — though  we  made  a  sorry 
show  of  it,  for  there  were  even  then  more  rags  than 
lace  or  good  leather  —  and  His  Excellency  spoke  a 
farewell  word  in  the  hearing  of  us  all. 

*'You  are  to  complete  your  quarters  with  all  con- 
venient expediency,"  he  said  to  De  Troyes,  who  stood 
attentive,  before  us.  **  There  will  be  no  lack  of  pro- 
vision sent.  You  have  here  in  these  waters  the  finest 
fish  in  the  world.  There  is  naught  to  fear  from  these 
Iroquois  wasps  —  have  we  not  just  torn  to  pieces  their 
nests  ? ' ' 

He  said  this  with  a  fine  bravado,  though  methought 
he  lacked  somewhat  of  sincerity ;  for  surely  scattered 
wasps  might  prove  troublesome  enough  to  those  of  us 
who  stayed  behind.  But  De  Troyes  made  no  reply, 
and  saluted  gravely.  And  so,  with  a  jaunty  word  about 
the  pleasant  spot  where  we  were  to  abide,  and  a  light 
promise  to  send  fresh  troops  in  the  spring,  the  General 
took  himself  off,  and  we  were  left  behind  to  look  out 
for  the  wasps.  As  the  boats  passed  the  sandbar  and 
turned  to  skirt  the  lake  shore  to  the  westward,  we  gave 
them  a  salvo  of  musketry ;  but  De  Troyes  raised  his 
hand  —  although  the  great   Marquis  was  yet  in  sight 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch,       47 

and  almost  in  hailing  distance  —  and  forbade  another 
discharge. 

' '  Save  your  powder, ' '  was  all  he  said  ;  and  the  very- 
brevity  of  it  seemed  to  mean  more  than  many  words, 
and  put  us  into  a  low  mood  for  that  whole  day. 

Now  for  a  time  that  followed  there  was  work  enough 
to  keep  each  man  busy,  which  is  best  for  all  who  are  in 
this  trade  of  war,  especially  in  the  wilderness.  It  was 
on  the  third  of  August  that  M.  de  Brissay  left  us,  he 
having  sent  off  some  of  the  militia  ahead  of  him ;  and 
he  bade  M.  de  Vaudreuil  stay  behind  for  a  space,  to 
help  the  Sieur  de  Troyes  complete  the  fort  and  cabins, 
and  this  he  did  right  ably,  for  as  all  Canada  and  the 
King  himself  know,  M.  de  Vaudreuil  was  a  man  of 
exceeding  great  energy  and  resources  in  these  matters. 
There  was  a  vast  deal  of  fetching  and  carrying,  of  hew- 
ing and  sawing  and  framing.  And  notwithstanding 
that  the  sun  of  that  climate  was  desperately  hot  the  men 
worked  with  good  hearts,  so  that  there  was  soon  finished 
an  excellent  lodgment  for  the  commandant ;  with  a 
chimney  of  sticks  and  clay,  and  boards  arranged  into  a 
sort  of  bedstead  ;  and  this  M.  de  Troyes  shared  with  M. 
de  Vaudreuil,  until  such  time  as  the  latter  gentleman 
quit  us.  There  were  three  other  cabins  built,  with  chim- 
neys, doors  and  little  windows.  We  also  constructed 
a  baking-house  with  a  large  oven  and  chimney,  partly 
covered  with  boards  and  the  remainder  with  hurdles 
and  clay.  We  also  built  an  extensive  framed  building 
without  chimney,  and  a  large  store-house  with  pillars 
eight  feet  high,  and  made  from  time  to  time  yet  other 


48       The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch, 

constructions  for  the  men  and  goods  —  though,  Dieu 
defend !  we  had  spare  room  for  both,  soon  enough.  In 
the  square  in  the  midst  of  the  buildings  we  digged  a 
well ;  and  although  the  water  was  sweet  enough^  yet 
from  the  first,  for  lack  of  proper  curbing  and  protec- 
tion, it  was  ever  much  roiled  and  impure  when  we  drew 
it,  a  detriment  alike  to  health  and  cookery. 

M.  de  Vaudreuil  seeing  us  at  last  well  roofed,  and 
having  directed  for  a  little  the  getting  of  a  store  of 
firewood,  made  his  adieux.  Even  then,  in  those  fine 
August  days,  a  spirit  of  discontent  was  among  us,  and 
more  than  one  spark  of  a  soldier,  who  at  the  first  camp 
had  been  hot  upon  staying  on  the  Niagara,  sought  now 
to  be  taken  in  M.  de  Vaudreuil' s  escort.  But  that 
gentleman  replied,  that  he  wished  to  make  a  good  re- 
port of  us  all  to  the  Governor,  and  that,  for  his  part, 
he  hoped  he  might  come  to  us  early  in  the  spring, 
with  the  promised  detachment  of  troops.  And  so  we 
parted. 

Now  the  spring  before,  when  we  had  all  followed 
the  Marquis  de  Denonville  across  Lake  Ontario  to 
harass  the  cantons  of  the  Iroquois,  this  establishment 
of  a  post  on  the  Niagara  was  assuredly  a  part  of  that 
gentleman's  plan.  It  is  not  for  me,  who  am  but  a 
mere  lieutenant  of  marines,  to  show  how  a  great  com- 
mander should  conduct  his  expeditions ;  yet  I  do  de- 
clare that  while  there  was  no  lack  of  provision  made 
for  killing  such  of  the  savages  as  would  permit  it,  there 
was  next  to  none  for  maintaining  troops  who  were  to 
be  left  penned  up  in  the  savages'  country.     We  who 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch,      49 

were  left  at  Fort  Denonville  had  but  few  mattocks  or 
even  axes.  Of  ammunition  there  was  none  too  much. 
In  the  Senecas'  country  we  had  destroyed  thousands  of 
minots  ^  of  corn,  but  had  brought  along  scarce  a  week's 
rations  of  it  to  this  corner.  We  had  none  of  us  gone 
a-soldiering  with  our  pockets  full  of  seed,  and  even  if 
we  had  brought  ample  store  of  corn  and  pumpkin  seed, 
of  lentils  and  salad  plants,  the  season  was  too  late  to 
have  done  much  in  gardening.  We  made  some  feeble 
attempts  at  it ;  but  no  rain  fell,  the  earth  baked  under 
the  sun  so  hard  that  great  cracks  came  in  it  \  and  what 
few  shoots  of  corn  and  pumpkin  thrust  upward  through 
this  parched  soil,  withered  away  before  any  strength- 
ening juices  came  in  them.  To  hunt  far  from  the  fort 
we  durst  not,  save  in  considerable  parties ;  so  that  if 
we  made  ourselves  safe  from  the  savages,  we  also  made 
every  other  living  thing  safe  against  us.  To  fish  was 
well  nigh  our  only  recourse ;  but  although  many  of  our 
men  labored  diligently  at  it,  they  met  with  but  indif- 
ferent return. 

Thus  it  was  that  our  most  ardent  hopes,  our  very  life 
itself,  hung  upon  the  coming  of  the  promised  supplies. 
There  was  joy  at  the  fort  when  at  length  the  sail  of  the 
little  bark  was  seen  ;  even  De  Troyes,  who  had  grown 
exceeding  grave  and  melancholy,  took  on  again  some- 
thing of  his  wonted  spirit.  But  we  were  not  quite  yet 
to  be  succored,  for  it  was  the  season  of  the  most  light 
and  trifling  airs,  so  that  the  bark  for  two  days  hung 
idly  on  the  shining  lake,  some  leagues  away  from  the 

^  A  minot  is  an  old  French  measure  ;  about  three  bushels. 


50       The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch. 

mouth  of  the  river,  while  we  idled  and  fretted  like 
children,  impatient  for  her  coming.  When  once  we 
had  her  within  the  bar,  there  was  no  time  lost  in  un- 
lading. It  was  a  poor  soldier  indeed  who  could  not 
work  to  secure  the  comfort  of  his  own  belly ;  and  the 
store  was  so  ample  that  we  felt  secure  for  the  winter, 
come  what  might.  The  bark  that  fetched  these  things 
had  been  so  delayed  by  the  calms,  that  she  weighed 
and  sailed  with  the  first  favoring  breeze ;  and  it  was 
not  until  her  sail  had  fall'n  below  the  horizon  that 
we  fairly  had  sight  or  smell  of  what  she  had  brought. 

From  the  first  the  stores  proved  bad ;  still,  we  made 
shift  to  use  the  best,  eked  out  with  what  the  near-by 
forest  and  river  afforded.  For  many  weeks  we  saw  no 
foes.  There  was  little  work  to  do,  and  the  men  idled 
through  the  days,  with  no  word  on  their  lips  but  to  com- 
plain of  the  food  and  wish  for  spring.  When  the  frosts 
began  to  fall  we  had  a  more  vigorous  spell  of  it ;  but 
now  for  the  first  time  appeared  the  Iroquois  wasps. 
One  of  our  parties,  which  had  gone  toward  the  great 
fall  of  the  Niagara,  lost  two  men;  those  who  returned 
reported  that  their  comrades  were  taken  all  unawares 
by  the  savages.  Another  party,  seeking  game  to  the 
eastward  where  a  stream  cuts  through  the  high  bank  on 
its  way  to  the  lake,^  never  came  back  at  all.  Here  we 
found  their  bodies  and  buried  them ;  but  their  scalps, 
after  the  manner  of  these  people,  had  been  taken. 

Christmas  drew  on,  but  never  was  a  sorrier  season 
kept  by  soldiers  of  France.     De  Troyes  had  fallen  ill. 

1  Evidently  at  Four  or  Six  Mile  Creek, 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch.       5 1 

Naught  ailed  him  that  we  could  see  save  low  spirits  and 
a  thinning  of  the  blood,  which  made  him  too  weak  to 
walk.  The  Father  Jean  de  Lamberville,  who  had 
stayed  with  us,  and  who  would  have  been  our  hope 
and  consolation  in  those  days,  very  early  fell  desperate 
ill  of  a  distemper,  so  that  the  men  had  not  the  help  of 
his  ministrations  and  holy  example.  Others  there  were 
who  either  from  feebleness  or  lack  of  discipline  openly 
refused  their  daily  duty  and  went  unpunished.  We 
had  fair  store  of  brandy ;  and  on  Christmas  eve  those 
of  us  who  still  held  some  soul  for  sport  essayed  to 
lighten  the  hour.  We  brewed  a  comfortable  draught, 
built  the  blaze  high,  for  the  frosts  were  getting  exceed- 
ing sharp,  gathered  as  many  as  could  be  had  of  officers 
and  worthy  men  into  our  cabin,  and  made  brave  to 
sing  the  songs  of  France.  And  now  here  was  a  strange 
thing :  that  while  the  hardiest  and  soundest  amongst 
us  had  made  good  show  of  cheer,  had  eaten  the  vile 
food  and  tried  to  speak  lightly  of  our  ills,  no  sooner 
did  we  hear  our  own  voices  in  the  songs  that  carried  us 
back  to  the  pleasantries  of  our  native  land,  than  we 
fell  a-sobbing  and  weeping  like  children  ;  which  weak- 
ness I  attribute  to  the  distemper  that  was  already  in 
our  blood. 

For  the  days  that  followed  I  have  no  heart  to  set 
down  much.  We  never  went  without  the  palisades 
except  well  guarded  to  fetch  firewood.  This  duty 
indeed  made  the  burden  of  every  day.  A  prodigious 
store  of  wood  was  needed,  for  the  cold  surpassed  any- 
thing I  had  ever  known.     The  snow  fell  heavily,  and 


5  2        The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch, 

there  were  storms  when  for  days  the  gale  drave  straight 
across  our  bleak  plateau.  There  was  no  blood  in  us 
to  withstand  the  icy  blasts.  Do  what  we  would  the  chill 
of  the  tomb  was  in  the  cabins  where  the  men.  lay. 
The  wood-choppers  one  day,  facing  such  a  storm,  fell 
in  the  deep  drifts  just  outside  the  gate.  None  durst  go 
out  to  them.  The  second  day  the  wolves  found  them 
— and  we  saw  it  all ! 

There  was  not  a  charge  of  powder  left  in  the  fort. 
There  was  not  a  mouthful  of  fit  food.  The  biscuits 
had  from  the  first  been  full  of  worms  and  weevils. 
The  salted  meat,  either  from  the  admixture  of  sea-water 
through  leaky  casks,  or  from  other  cause,  was  rotten 
beyond  the  power  even  of  a  starving  man  to  hold. 

Le  scorbut  broke  out.  I  had  seen  it  on  shipboard, 
and  knew  the  signs.  De  Troyes  now  seldom  left  his 
cabin ;  and  when,  in  the  way  of  duty,  I  made  my  de- 
voirs, and  he  asked  after  the  men,  I  made  shift  to  hide 
the  truth.     But  it  could  not  be  for  long. 

'*  My  poor  fellows,"  he  sighed  one  day,  as  he  turned 
feebly  on  his  couch  of  planks,  '*  it  must  be  with  all  as 
it  is  with  me  —  see,  look  here,  De  Tregay,  do  you 
know  the  sign  ?  ' '  and  he  bared  his  shrunken  arm  and 
side. 

Indeed  I  knew  the  signs  —  the  dry,  pallid  skin,  with 
the  purple  blotches  and  indurations.  He  saw  I  was  at 
a  loss  for  words. 

^^  Sang  de  Dieu  !^^  he  cried,    *^  is  this  what  soldiers 

of  France  must  come  to,  for  the  glory  of" .     He 

stopped  short,  as  if  lacking  spirit  to  go  on.     '^  Now  I  be- 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch,       53 

think  me, ' '  he  added,  in  a  melancholy  voice,  *  '■  it  is  what 
soldiers  must  come  to."  Then,  after  a  while  he  asked  : 
"  How  many  dead  today,  De  Tregay  ?  " 
How  many  dead  !  From  a  garrison  of  gallant  men- 
at-arms  we  had  become  a  charnel-house.  In  six  weeks 
we  had  lost  sixty  men.  From  a  hundred  at  the  begin- 
ning of  autumn,  we  were  now  scarce  forty,  and  Feb- 
ruary was  not  gone.  A  few  of  us,  perhaps  with  stouter 
stomachs  than  the  rest,  did  all  the  duty  of  the  post. 
We  brought  the  firewood  and  we  buried  the  dead  — 
picking  the  frozen  clods  with  infinite  toil,  that  we 
might  lay  the  bones  of  our  comrades  beyond  the  reach 
of  wolves.  Sometimes  it  was  the  scurvy,  sometimes  it 
was  the  cold,  sometimes,  methinks,  it  was  naught  but  a 
weak  will  —  or  as  we  say,  the  broken  heart ;  but  it 
mattered  not,  the  end  was  the  same.  More  than  twenty 
died  in  March  ;  and  although  we  were  now  but  a  hand- 
ful of  skeletons  and  accustomed  to  death,  I  had  no 
thought  of  sorrow  or  of  grief,  so  dulled  had  my  spirit 
become,  until  one  morning  I  found  the  brave  De  Troyes 
drawing  with  frightful  pains  his  dying  breath.  With  the 
name  of  a  maid  he  loved  upon  his  lips,  the  light  went 
out  j  and  with  heavy  heart  I  buried  him  in  that  crowded 
ground,  and  fain  would  have  lain  down  with  him. 

And  now  with  our  commander  under  the  snow,  what 
little  spirit  still  burned  in  the  best  of  us  seemed  to  die 
down.  I  too  bore  the  signs  of  the  distemper,  yet  to 
no  great  extent,  for  of  all  the  garrison  I  had  labored 
by  exercise  to  keep  myself  wholesome,  and  in  the 
woods  I  had  tasted  of  barks  and  buds  and  roots  of 


54       The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch. 

little  herbs,  hoping  to  find  something  akin  in  its  juices 
to  the  herbe  de  scorbut^  which  I  have  known  to  cure 
sick  sailors.  But  now  I  gave  over  these  last  efforts  for 
life  j  for,  thought  I,  spring  is  tardy  in  these  latitudes. 
Many  weeks  must  yet  pass  before  the  noble  Marquis  at 
Montreal  (where  comforts  are)  will  care  to  send  the 
promised  troop.  And  the  Western  savages,  our  allies 
the  Illinois,  the  Ottawais,  the  Miamis,  were  they  not 
coming  to  succor  us  here  and  to  raid  the  Iroquois  can- 
tons ?     But  of  what  account  is  the  savage's  word  ! 

So  I  thought,  and  I  turned  myself  on  my  pallet.  I 
listened.  There  was  no  sound  in  all  the  place  save  the 
beating  of  a  sleet.  ''It  is  appointed,"  I  said  within 
me.  ''Let  the  end  come."  And  presently,  being 
numb  with  the  cold,  I  thought  I  was  on  a  sunny  hill- 
side in  Anjou.  It  was  the  time  of  the  grape-harvest, 
and  the  smell  of  the  vines,  laughter  and  sunshine  filled 
the  air.  Young  lads  and  maids,  playmates  of  my  boy- 
hood days,  came  and  took  me  by  the  hand. 

A  twinge  of  pain  made  the  vision  pass.  I  opened 
my  eyes  upon  a  huge  savage,  painted  and  bedaubed, 
after  their  fashion.  It  was  the  grip  of  his  vast  fist  that 
had  brought  me  back  from  Anjou. 

"The  Iroquois,  then,"  I  thought,  "have  learned  of 
our  extremity,  and  have  broken  in,  to  finish  all.  So 
much  the  better, ' '  and  I  was  for  sinking  back  upon  the 
boards,  when  the  savage  took  from  a  little  pouch  a 
handful  of  the  parched  corn  which  they  carry  on  their 
expeditions.      "Eat,"  he  said,  in  the  language  of  the 

1  Probably  what  the  English  call  scurvy-grass. 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch.       55 

Miamis.  And  then  I  knew  that  relief  had  come  —  and 
I  knew  no  more  for  a  space. 

Now  this  was  Michitonka  himself,  who  had  led  his 
war  party  from  beyond  Lake  Erie,  where  the  Chevalier 
de  Tonty  and  Du  Luth  were,  to  see  how  we  fared  at 
Fort  Denonville,  and  to  make  an  expedition  against 
the  Senecas  —  of  whom  we  saw  no  more,  from  the 
time  the  Miamis  arrived.  There  were  of  all  our  gar- 
rison but  twelve  not  dead,  and  among  those  who  threw 
oif  the  distemper  was  the  Father  de  Lamberville.  His 
recovery  gave  us  the  greatest  joy.  He  lay  for  many 
weeks  at  the  very  verge  of  the  grave,  and  it  was  mar- 
velous to  all  to  see  his  skin,  which  had  been  so  em- 
purpled and  full  of  malignant  humors,  come  wholesome 
and  fair  again.  I  have  often  remarked,  in  this  hard 
country,  that  of  all  Europeans  the  Fathers  of  the  Holy 
Orders  may  be  brought  nearest  to  death,  and  yet  regain 
their  wonted  health.  They  have  the  same  prejudice 
for  life  that  the  wildest  savage  has.  But  as  for  the  rest 
of  us,  who  are  neither  savage  nor  holy,  it  is  by  a  slim 
chance  that  we  live  at  all. 

Now  the  Father,  and  two  or  three  of  the  others  who 
had  the  strength  to  risk  it,  set  out  with  a  part  of  Michi- 
tonka's  people  to  Cataracouy'  and  Montreal,  to  carry 
the  news  of  our  extremity.  And  on  a  soft  April  day  as 
we  looked  over  lake,  we  saw  a  sail ;  and  we  knew  that 
we  had  kept  the  fort  until  the  relief  company  was  sent  as 
had  been  commanded.     But  it  had  been  a  great  pinch. 


1  Otherwise  Fort  Fronienac,  now  Kingston,  Ont. 


56       The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch. 

Now  I  am  come  to  that  which  after  all  I  chiefly  set 
out  to  write  down ;  for  I  have  ever  held  that  great 
woes  should  be  passed  over  with  few  words,  but  it  is 
meet  to  dwell  upon  the  hour  of  gladness.  And  this 
hour  was  now  arrived,  when  we  saw  approach  the  new 
commandant,  the  Sieur  Desbergeres,  captain  of  one  of 
the  companies  of  the  Detachment  of  the  Marine,  and 
with  him  the  Father  Milet,  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
There  was  a  goodly  company,  whose  names  are  well 
writ  on  the  history  of  this  New  France :  the  Sieurs  De 
la  Mothe,  La  Rabelle,  Demuratre  de  Clerin  and  de 
Gemerais,  and  others,  besides  a  host  of  fine  fellows  of 
the  common  rank  ;  with  fresh  food  that  meant  life  to  us. 

Of  all  who  came  that  April  day,  it  was  the  Father 
Milet  who  did  the  most.  The  very  morning  that  he 
landed,  we  knelt  about  him  at  mass  \  and  scarce  had 
he  rested  in  his  cabin  than  he  marked  a  spot  in  the 
midst  of  the  square,  where  a  cross  should  stand,  and 
bade  as  many  as  could,  get  about  the  hewing  of  it ; 
and  although  I  was  yet  feeble  and  might  rest  as  I  liked, 
I  chose  to  share  in  the  work,  for  so  I  found  my 
pleasure.  A  fair  straight  oak  was  felled  and  well  hewn, 
and  with  infinite  toil  the  timber  was  taken  within  the 
palisades  and  further  dressed  ;  and  while  the  carpenters 
toiled  to  mortise  the  cross-piece  and  fasten  it  with  pins, 
Father  Milet  himself  traced  upon  the  arms  the  symbols 
for  the  legend : 

IReanat,  Dinctt,  IFmperat  Cbrlstua* 

And  these  letters  were  well  cut  into  the  wood,  in  the 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch,       57 

midst  of  them  being  the  sign  of  the  Sacred  Heart. 
We  had  it  well  made,  and  a  place  dug  for  it,  on  a 
Thursday ;  and  on  the  next  morning,  which  was  Good 
Friday,  the  reverend  Father  placed  his  little  portable 
altar  in  the  midst  of  the  square,  where  we  all,  officers 
and  men,  and  even  some  of  the  Miamis  who  were  yet 
with  us,  assembled  for  the  mass.  Then  we  raised  the 
great  cross  and  planted  it  firmly  in  the  midst  of  the 
little  square.  The  service  of  the  blessing  of  it  lay 
hold  of  my  mind  mightily,  for  my  fancy  was  that  this 
great  sign  of  victory  had  sprung  from  the  midst  of  the 
graves  where  De  Troyes  and  four  score  of  my  comrades 
lay ;  and  being  in  this  tender  mood  (for  I  was  still 
weak  in  body)  the  words  which  the  Father  read  from  his 
breviary  seemed  to  rest  the  more  clearly  in  my  mind. 

^^  Adjutorium  nostrum  in  nomine  Domini ^  Father 
Milet  had  a  good  voice,  with  a  sort  of  tenderness  in 
it,  so  that  we  were  every  one  disposed  to  such  silence 
and  attention,  that  I  could  even  hear  the  little  waves 
lapping  the  shore  below  the  fort.  And  when  he  be- 
gan with  the  **  Oramus^^ — ^^  Rogamus  te  Domine  sancie 
Fater  omnipotens,^' — I  was  that  moved,  by  the  joy  of 
it,  and  my  own  memories,  that  I  wept  —  and  I  a 
soldier  ! 

It  may  be  believed  that  the  Sunday  which  followed, 
which  was  the  Paschal,  was  kept  by  us  with  such  wor- 
ship and  rejoicing  as  had  never  yet  been  known  in 
those  remote  parts.  Holy  men  had  been  on  that 
river  before,  it  is  true ;  but  none  had  abode  there  for 
long,  nor  had  any  set  up  so  great  a  cross,  nor  had  there 


58       The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch, 

ever  such  new  life  come  to  men  as  we  knew  at  Fort 
Denonville  that  Easter. 

For  a  space,  all  things  went  well.  What  with  the 
season  (for  spring  ever  inspires  men  to  new  undertak- 
ings) and  the  bitter  lessons  learned  in  the  great  pinch 
of  the  past  winter,  we  were  no  more  an  idle  set,  but 
kept  all  at  work,  and  well.  Yet  the  Iroquois  pestered 
us  vastly,  being  set  on  thereto  by  the  English,  who 
claimed  this  spot.  And  in  September  there  came  that 
pilot  Maheut,  bringing  his  bark  La  General  over  the 
shoal  at  the  river's  mouth  all  unexpected  j  and  she  was 
scarce  anchored  in  the  little  roadstead  than  Desbergeres 
knew  he  was  to  abandon  all.  It  was  cause  of  chagrin 
to  the  great  Marquis,  I  make  no  doubt,  thus  to  drop 
the  prize  he  had  so  tried  to  hold ;  but  some  of  us  in 
the  fort  had  no  stomach  for  another  winter  on  the 
Niagara,  and  we  made  haste  to  execute  the  orders 
which  the  Marquis  de  Denonville  had  sent.  We  put 
the  guns  on  board  La  General.  We  set  the  gate  open, 
and  tore  down  the  rows  of  pales  on  the  south  and  east 
sides  of  the  square.  Indeed  the  wind  had  long  ago 
begun  this  work,  so  that  towards  the  lake  the  pales 
(being  but  little  set  in  the  earth)  had  fallen  or  leaned 
over,  so  they  could  readily  have  been  scaled,  or  broken 
through.  But  as  the  order  was,  we  left  the  cabins  and 
quarters  standing,  with  doors  ajar,  to  welcome  who 
might  come,  Iroquois  or  wolf,  for  there  was  naught 
within.  But  Father  Milet  took  down  from  above  the 
door  of  his  cabin  the  little  sun  dial.  ^'  The  shadow  of 
the  great  cross  falls  divers  ways,"  was  his  saying. 


The  Paschal  of  the  Great  Pinch,       59 

Early  the  next  morning,  being  the  15th  of  Septem- 
ber, of  the  year  1688,  being  ready  for  the  embarka- 
tion. Father  Milet  summoned  us  to  the  last  mass  he 
might  say  in  the  place.  It  was  a  sad  morning,  for  the 
clouds  hung  heavy^  the  lake  was  of  a  somber  and  for- 
bidding cast,  and  the  very  touch  in  the  air  forebode 
autumnal  gales.  As  we  knelt  around  the  cross  for  the 
last  time,  the  ensign  brought  the  standards  which  Des- 
bergeres  had  kept,  and  holding  the  staves,  knelt  also. 
Certain  Miamis,  too,  who  were  about  to  make  the 
Niagara  portage,  stayed  to  see  what  the  priest  might 
do.  And  at  the  end  of  the  office  Father  Milet  did  an 
uncommon  thing,  for  he  was  mightily  moved.  He 
turned  from  us  toward  the  cross,  and  throwing  wide  his 
arms  spoke  the  last  word —  **  Amen." 

There  were  both  gladness  and  sorrow  in  our  hearts  as 
we  embarked.  Lake  and  sky  took  on  the  hue  of  lead, 
foreboding  storm.  We  durst  carry  but  little  sail,  and  at 
the  sunset  hour  were  scarce  a  league  off  shore.  As  it 
chanced.  Father  Milet  and  I  stood  together  on  the 
deck  and  gazed  through  the  gloom  toward  that  dark 
coast.  While  we  thus  stood,  there  came  a  rift  betwixt 
the  banked  clouds  to  the  west,  so  that  the  sun,  just  as 
it  slipped  from  sight,  lighted  those  Niagara  shores, 
and  we  saw  but  for  an  instant,  above  the  blackness  and 
the  desolation,  the  great  cross  as  in  fire  or  blood 
gleam  red. 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 


WITH  BOLTON  AT  FORT  NIAGARA. 


ONE  PLEASANT  September  day  in  1897  it  was 
ray  good  fortune,  under  expert  guidance,  to  fol- 
low for  a  little  the  one  solitary  trail  made  by  the 
American  patriots  in  Western  New  York  during  the  Rev- 
olutionary War,  the  one  expedition  of  our  colonial  forces 
approaching  this  region  during  that  period.  This  was 
the  famous  "raid"  led  by  Gen.  John  Sullivan  in  the 
summer  of  1779.  Our  quest  took  us  up  the  long  hill 
slope  west  of  Conesus  Lake,  in  what  is  now  the  town 
of  Groveland,  Livingston  Co.,  to  a  spot  —  among  the 
most  memorable  in  the  annals  of  Western  New  York, 
yet  unmarked  and  known  to  but  a  few — where  a  de- 
tachment of  Sullivan's  army,  under  Lieut.  Boyd,  were 
waylaid  and  massacred  by  the  Indians.  It  was  on  the 
13th  of  September  that  this  tragedy  occurred.  Two 
days  later  Gen.  Sullivan,  having  accomplished  the 
main  purpose  of  his  raid  —  the  destruction  of  Indian 
villages  and  crops — turned  back  towards  Pennsylvania, 
returning  to  Easton,  whence  the  expedition  had  started. 
He  had  come  within  about  eighty  miles  of  the  Niagara. 
''Though  I  had  it  not  in  command,"  wrote  Gen. 
Sullivan   in   his   report  to  the    Secretary  of  AVar,   "I 


64         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

should  have  ventured  to  have  paid  [Fort]  Niagara  a 
visit,  had  I  been  supplied  with  fifteen  days'  provisions 
in  addition  to  what  I  had,  which  I  am  persuaded  from 
the  bravery  and  ardor  of  our  troops  would  have  fallen 
into  our  hands.  "^  This  was  the  nearest  approach  to 
any  attempt  made  by  the  Americans  to  enter  this  region 
during  that  war. 

The  events  of  Sullivan's  expedition  are  well  kn.own. 
Few  episodes  of  the  Revolution  are  more  fully  re- 
corded. But  what  is  the  reverse  of  the  picture  ?  What 
lay  at  the  other  side  of  this  Western  New  York  wilder- 
ness which  Sullivan  failed  to  penetrate?  What  was 
going  on,  up  and  down  the  Niagara,  and  on  Buffalo 
Creek,  during  those  momentous  years  ?  We  know  that 
the  region  was  British,  that  old  Fort  Niagara  was  its 
garrison,  the  principal  rendezvous  of  the  Indians  and 
the  base  from  which  scalping  parties  set  out  to  harry 
the  frontier  settlements.  The  most  dreadful  frontier 
tragedies  of  the  war  —  Wyoming,  Cherry  Valley,  and 
others  —  were  planned  here  and  carried  out  with 
British  cooperation.  But  who  were  the  men  and  what 
were  the  incidents  of  the  time,  upon  our  Niagara 
frontier  ?  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  that  period  is  for  the 
most  part  a  blank  in  our  histories.  One  may  search 
the  books  in  vain  for  any  adequate  narrative  —  indeed 
for  any  but  the  most  meager  data  —  of  the  history  of 
the  Niagara  region  during  the  Revolution.  The 
materials  are  not  lacking,  they  are  in  fact  abundant. 
In  this  paper  I  undertake  only  to  give  an  inkling  of 

1  Sullivan  to  Jay,  Teaogo  (Tioga),  Sept.  30,  1779. 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara,         65 

the  character  of  events  in  this  region  during  that  grave 
period  in  our  nation's  history.^ 

In  1778,  Colonel  Haldimand,  afterward  Sir  Frederick, 
succeeded  Gen.  Guy  Carleton  in  the  command  of  the 
British  forces  in  Canada.  He  was  Commander  in 
Chief,  and  Governor  of  Canada,  until  his  recall  in  1784. 
Lord  North  was  England's  Prime  Minister,  Lord 
George  Germaine  in  charge  of  American  affairs  in  the 
Cabinet.  Haldimand  took  up  his  residence  at  Quebec, 
and  therefrom,  for  a  decade,  administered  the  affairs  of 
the  Canadian  frontier  with  zeal  and  adroitness.  He 
was  a  thorough  soldier,  as  his  letters  show.  He  was 
also  an  adept  in  the  treatment  of  matters  which,  like 
the  retention  by  the  British  of  the  frontier  posts  for 
thirteen  years  after  they  had  been  ceded  to  the  Ameri- 
cans by  treaty,  called  for  dogged  determination,  veiled 
behind  diplomatic  courtesies.  The  troops  which  he 
commanded  were  scattered  from  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  Lake  Michigan ;  but  to  no  part  of  this 


1 1  first  struck  the  trail  in  London,  among  the  Colonial  Papers  pre- 
served in  the  Public  Records  Office.  Subsequently,  in  the  Archives  Depart- 
ment at  Ottawa,  I  found  that  trail  broaden  into  a  fair  highway.  Some- 
thing has  been  gleaned  at  Albany  ;  more,  no  doubt,  is  to  be  looked  for  at 
Washington ;  but  it  is  an  amazing  fact  that  our  Government  is  far  less 
liberal  in  granting  access  for  students  to  its  official  records  than  is  either 
England  or  Canada.  But  the  Niagara  region  was  British  during  the  Revo- 
lution, and  its  history  is  chiefly  to  be  sought  in  British  archives.  Especi- 
ally in  the  Haldimand  Papers,  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  but  of 
which  verified  copies  are  readily  accessible  in  the  Archives  at  Ottawa,  is 
the  Revolutionary  history  of  the  Niagara  to  be  found.  Besides  the  232 
great  volumes  in  which  these  papers  are  gathered,  there  are  thousands  of 
other  MSS.  of  value  to  an  inquirer  seeking  the  history  of  this  region  ;  especi- 
ally the  correspondence,  during  all  that  term  of  years,  between  the  comman- 
dants at  Fort  Niagara  and  other  upper  lake  posts,  and  the  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  British  forces  in  America ;  between  that  general  and  the  Minis- 
try in  London,  and  between  the  commandants  at  the  posts  and  the  Indian 
agents,  fur  traders  and  many  classes  and  conditions  of  men.  For  the 
incidents  here  recorded  I  have  drawn,  almost  exclusively,  on  these  unpub- 
lished sources. 


66         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

long  line  of  wilderness  defense  —  a  line  which  was  sub- 
stantially the  enemy's  frontier  —  did  he  pay  more 
constant  attention  than  to  Fort  Niagara.  There  were 
good  reasons  for  this.  Fort  Niagara  was  not  only 
the  key  to  the  upper  lakes,  the  base  of  supplies  for 
Detroit,  Michillimackinac  and  minor  posts,  but  it 
had  long  been  an  important  trading  post  and  the 
principal  rendezvous  of  the  Six  Nations,  upon  whose 
peculiarly  efficient  services  against  the  American 
frontiers  Sir  Frederick  relied  scarcely  less  than  he  did 
upon  the  British  troops  themselves.  It  was,  therefore, 
with  no  ordinary  solicitude  that  he  made  his  appoint- 
ments for  Niagara. 

I  cannot  state  positively  the  names  of  all  officers  in 
command  at  Fort  Niagara  from  the  time  war  was  be- 
gun, down  to  1777.  Lieut.  Lernault,  afterwards  at  De- 
troit, was  here  for  a  time ;  but  about  the  spring  of  '77 
we  find  Fort  Niagara  put  under  the  command  of  Lieut. 
Col.  Mason  Bolton,  of  the  34th  Royal  Artillery.  He 
had  then  seen  some  years  of  service  in  America ;  had 
campaigned  in  Florida  and  the  West  Indies ;  had  been 
sent  to  Mackinac  and  as  far  west  as  the  Illinois ;  and  it 
was  no  slight  tribute  to  his  ability  and  fidelity,  when  Hal- 
dimand  put  the  Niagara  frontier  into  his  hands.  Here, 
for  over  three  years,  he  was  the  chief  in  command. 
In  military  rank,  even  if  in  nothing  else,  he  was  the 
principal  man  in  this  region  during  the  crucial  period 
of  the  Revolution.  He  commanded  the  garrison  at 
Fort  Niagara,  and  its  dependencies  at  Schlosser  and 
Fort   Erie.     Buffalo  was  then   unthought  of — it   was 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         67 

merely  Te-hos-e-ro-ron,  the  place  of  the  basswoods ; 
but  at  the  Indian  villages  farther  up  Buffalo  Creek, 
which  came  into  existence  in  1780,  the  name  of  Col. 
Bolton  stood  for  the  highest  military  authority  of  the 
region.  And  yet,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  after  all 
these  years  in  which  —  to  adapt  Carlyle's  phrase  —  the 
Torch  of  History  has  been  so  assiduously  brandished 
about,  I  do  not  know  of  any  printed  book  which  offers 
any  information  about  Col.  Mason  Bolton  or  the  life  he 
led  here.  Indeed,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  in 
which  he  is  barely  alluded  to,  I  think  all  printed 
literature  may  be  searched  in  vain  for  so  much  as  a 
mention  of  his  name. 

Other  chief  men  of  this  frontier,  at  the  period  we 
are  considering,  were  Col.  Guy  Johnson,  Superintend- 
ent of  Indian  Affairs  \  Sir  John  Johnson,  son  of  the 
Sir  William  who  captured  Fort  Niagara  from  the 
French  in  1759 ;  Col.  John  Butler,  of  the  Queen's 
Rangers;  his  son  Walter;  Sayenqueraghta,  the  King 
of  the  Senecas ;  Rowland  Montour,  his  half-breed  son- 
in-law;  and  Brant,  the  Mohawk  hero,  who,  equipped 
with  a  New  England  schooling  and  enlightened  by  a 
trip  to  England,  here  returned  to  lead  out  scalping 
parties  in  the  British  interests. 

Col.  Bolton  had  been  for  some  time  without  authen- 
tic news  of  the  enemy,  when  on  the  morning  of 
December  14,  1777,  the  little  garrison  was  thrown 
into  unwonted  activity  by  the  arrival  of  Capt.  La 
Mothe,  who  reported  that  Gen.  Howe  had  taken  Phila- 
delphia, and  that  the  rebels  had  '^sustained  an  incred- 


68         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

ible  loss."  By  a  forced  march  of  Howe,  La  Mothe 
averred,  Gen.  Washington  had  been  defeated,  ''with 
11,000  rebels  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners."  Two 
days  later  the  excitement  was  increased  by  the  arrival 
at  the  fort  of  some  Delaware  Indians,  who  brought  the 
great  news  that  Washington  was  killed  and  his  army 
totally  routed.  ''  I  had  a  meeting  of  the  chiefs  of  the 
Six  Nations,"  wrote  Bolton  to  Gen.  Carleton,  ''about 
an  hour  after  the  express  arrived  and  told  them  the 
news.  They  seemed  extremely  pleased  and  have  been 
in  good  temper  ever  since  their  arrival."  Oddly 
enough,  this  news  was  confirmed  by  a  soldier  of  the 
7th  Regiment,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Americans,  but  had  escaped  and  made  his  way  to  Ni- 
agara. He  further  embellished  the  report  by  declaring 
that  9,000  men  under  Lord  Percy  defeated  13,000 
rebels  at  Bear's  Hill  on  December  20th,  under  Washing- 
ton, that  Gates  was  sent  for  to  take  the  command  when 
Washington  was  killed,  and  that  7,000  volunteers  from 
Ireland  had  joined  Howe's  army.  Washington  at  this 
time,  the  reader  will  remember,  had  gone  into  winter 
quarters  with  his  army  at  Valley  Forge. 

There  were  2,300  Indians  at  Fort  Niagara  at  this 
period,  all  making  perpetual  demands  for  beef,  flour 
and  rum.  The  license  of  the  jubilee  over  Washing- 
ton's death  probably  was  limited  only  by  the  scantiness 
of  provisions  and  the  impossibility  of  adding  to  the 
store.  Cold  weather  shut  down  on  the  establishment, 
the  vessels  were  laid  up,  and  all  winter  long  Col. 
Bolton  and  his  men  had  no  word   contradicting   the 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.        69 

report  of  Washington's  death.  As  late  as  April  8th, 
the  following  spring,  he  wrote  to  Gen.  Carleton  that 
''all  accounts  confirm  Washington  being  killed  and  his 
army  defeated  in  December  last,  and  that  Gates  was 
sent  for  to  take  the  command." 

The  British  early  were  apprised  of  Sullivan's  intended 
raid,  and  although  powerless  to  prevent  it,  kept  well 
posted  as  to  its  progress.  The  various  parties  which 
Sullivan  encountered,  were  directed  from  Fort  Niagara. 
''Since  the  rebels  visit  the  Indian  country,"  wrote 
Gen.  Haldimand  to  Sir  John  Johnson,  September  14, 
1779,  "  I  am  happy  they  are  advancing  so  far.  They 
can  never  reach  Niagara  and  their  difficulties  and 
danger  of  retreat  will,  in  proportion  as  they  advance, 
increase."  Again  he  wrote  twelve  days  later  :  "  You 
will  be  able  to  make  your  way  to  Niagara,  and  if  the 
rebels  should  be  encouraged  to  advance  as  far  as  that 
place,  I  am  convinced  that  few  of  them  will  escape 
from  famine  or  the  sword.  All  in  my  power  to  do  for 
you  is  to  push  up  provisions,  which  shall  be  done  with 
the  utmost  vigor,  while  the  river  and  lake  remain  navi- 
gable, although  it  may  throw  me  into  great  distress  in 
this  part  of  the  province,  should  anything  happen  to 
prevent  the  arrival  of  the  fall  victuallers."  There  was 
however  genuine  alarm  at  Fort  Niagara,  and  even  Sir 
Frederick  himself,  though  he  wrote  so  confidently  to 
Bolton,  in  his  letters  to  the  Ministry  expressed  grave 
apprehensions  of  what  might  happen. 

What  did  happen  was  bad  enough  for  British  inter- 
ests, for  though  the  Americans  turned  back,  the  raid 


70         Wzlh  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

had  driven  in  upon  Bolton  a  horde  of  frightened, 
hungry  and  irresponsible  Indians,  who  had  to  be  fed  at 
the  King's  expense  and  were  a  source  of  unmeasured 
concern  to  the  overworked  commandant,  notwithstand- 
ing the  independent  organization  of  the  Indian  Depart- 
ment which  was  effected. 

To  arrive  at  a  just  idea  of  conditions  hereabouts 
at  this  period,  we  must  keep  in  mind  the  relation  of 
the  fluctuating  population,  Indians  and  whites,  to  the 
uncertain  and  often  inadequate  food  supply. 

Fort  Niagara  at  this  time  —  the  fall  of  '78  —  was  a 
fortification  1,100  yards  in  circumference,  with  five 
bastions  and  two  blockhouses.  Capt.  John  Johnson 
thought  1,000  men  were  needed  to  defend  it;  ^*the 
present  strength,"  he  wrote,  ** amounting  to  no  more 
than  200  rank  and  file,  including  fifteen  men  of  the 
Royal  Artillery  and  the  sick,  a  number  barely  sufiicient 
to  defend  the  outworks  (if  they  were  in  a  state  of 
defense)  and  return  the  necessary  sentries,  should  the 

place  be  infested  by  a  considerable  force 

With  a  garrison  of  500  or  a  less  number,  it  is  impreg- 
nable against  all  the  savages  in  America,  but  if  a 
strong  body  of  troops  with  artillery  should  move  this 
way,  I  believe  no  engineer  who  has  ever  seen  these 
works  will  say  it  can  hold  out  any  considerable  time." 

On  May  1st,  1778,  there  had  been  in  the  garrison  at 
Fort  Niagara  311  men.  Half  a  dozen  more  were  sta- 
tioned at  Fort  Schlosser,  and  thirty-two  at  Fort  Erie,  a 
total  of  349,  of  whom  255  were  reported  as  fit  for  duty. 
At  this  time  Maj.   Butler's  Rangers,  numbering  106, 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         71 

had  gone  on  ^*an  expedition  with  the  Indians  towards 
the  settlements  of  Pennsylvania  or  New  York,  which- 
ever he  finds  most  practicable  and  advantageous  to  the 
King's  service."  These  raids  from  Fort  Niagara  were 
far  more  frequent  than  one  would  infer  from  the  histo- 
ries —  even  from  the  American  histories  whose  authors 
are  not  to  be  suspected  of  purposely  minimizing  either 
their  number  or  effect.  But  it  appears  from  the  rec- 
ords that  not  infrequently  the  expeditions  accomplished 
nothing  of  more  consequence  than  to  steal  stock. 
Horses,  cattle  and  sheep  were  in  more  than  one  in- 
stance driven  away  from  settlements  far  down  on  the 
Mohawk  or  Susquehanna,  and  brought  back  alive  or 
dead  along  the  old  trails,  to  Fort  Niagara. 

To  illustrate  the  methods  of  the  time  :  In  a  report  to 
Brig.  Gen.  Powell,  Maj.  Butler  wrote:  *'In  the  spring 
of  1778  I  found  it  absolutely  requisite  for  the  good  of 
His  Majesty's  service,  with  the  consent  and  approba- 
tion of  Lt.  Col.  Bolton,  and  on  the  application  of  the 
chiefs  and  warriors  of  the  five  united  nations  .  .  .  ., 
to  proceed  to  the  frontiers  of  the  colonies  in  rebellion, 
with  as  many  officers  and  men  of  my  corps  as  were 
then  raised,  in  order  to  protect  the  Indian  settlements 
and  to  annoy  the  enemy. ' '  At  this  time  many  of  his 
men  were  new  recruits  from  the  colonies,  sons  or 
heads  of  Loyalist — or  as  we  used  to  say,  on  this  side 
the  border,  of  Tory  —  families.  As  they  approached 
American  frontier  settlements,  the  loyalty  to  King 
George  of  some  of  his  men  became  suspicious,  so  that 
Butler   issued    a    proclamation    that    all  deserters,   if 


72         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

apprehended,  were  to  be  shot.  In  the  letter  just  quot- 
ed from  he  reports  that  this  order  had  a  good  effect. 
Many  curious  circumstances  arose  at  the  time,  due  to 
the  British  or  American  allegiance  of  men  who  before 
the  war  had  been  friendly  neighbors,  but  who  now 
met  as  hostiles,  as  captor  and  captive,  sometimes  as 
victor  and  victim.  There  was  a  constant  flight,  by 
one  route  and  another,  of  Loyalist  refugees  to  Fort 
Niagara.  Thus,  by  a  return  of  Feb.  12,  1779,  1,346 
people  were  drawing  rations  from  the  stores  of  that 
place,  of  whom  sixty-four  were  **  distressed  families," 
that  is,  Tories  who  had  fled  from  the  colonies  (mostly 
from  the  Mohawk  Valley);  and  445  Indians.  The  war 
parties  left  early  in  the  spring,  and  during  the  summer 
the  supply  boats  could  get  up  from  the  lower  stations. 
Then  came  that  march  of  destruction  up  the  Genesee 
Valley ;  winter  shut  down  on  lake  and  river  communi- 
cation, and  the  most  distressed  period  the  frontier  had 
known  under  British  rule  set  in.  In  October,  immedi- 
ately after  the  invasion.  Col.  Bolton  wrote  (I  quote 
briefly  from  a  very  full  report):  **  Joseph  Brant  .  .  .  . 
assures  me  that  if  500  men  had  joined  the  Rangers  in 
time,  there  is  no  doubt  that  instead  of  300,  at  least 
1,000  warriors  would  have  turned  out,  and  with  that 
force  he  is  convinced  that  Mr.  Sullivan  would  have  had 
some  reason  to  repent  of  his  expedition;  but  the 
Indians  not  being  supported  as  they  expected,  thought 
of  nothing  more  than  carrying  off  their  families,  and 
we  had  at  this  Post  the  21st  of  last  month  5,036  to 
supply  with  provisions,  and  notwithstanding  a  number 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         ']2, 

of  parties  have  been  sent  out  since,  we  have  still  on 
the  ground  3,678  to  maintain.  I  am  convinced  your 
Excellency  will  not  be  surprised,  if  I  am  extremely 
alarmed,  for  to  support  such  a  multitude  I  think  will  be 
absolutely  impossible.  I  have  requested  of  Major  But- 
ler to  try  his  utmost  to  prevail  on  the  Indians  whose 
villages  have  been  destroyed  to  go  down  to  Montreal 
for  the  winter,  where,  I  have  assured  him,  they  would 
be  well  taken  care  of;  and  to  inform  all  the  rest  who 
have  not  suffered  by  the  enemy  that  they  must  return 
home  and  take  care  of  their  corn." 

Neither  plan  worked  as  hoped  for.  It  was  difficult 
to  get  the  Indians  to  consent  to  go  down  the  river,  or 
even  to  Carleton  Island ;  and  as  Sullivan  had  destroyed 
every  village  save  two,  few  of  the  Senecas  could  be  in- 
duced to  return  into  the  Genesee  country.  Bolton's 
urgent  appeals  for  extra  provisions  were  also  doomed  to 
disappointment,  owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  season  or 
the  lack  of  transports. 

The  winter  after  Sullivan's  raid,  Guy  Johnson  distrib- 
uted clothing  to  more  than  3, 000  Indians  at  Fort  Niagara. 
But  the  cost  of  clothing  them  was  trifling  compared 
with  the  cost  of  feeding  them.  Expeditions  against  the 
distant  American  settlements  were  planned,  not  more 
through  the  desire  for  retaliation,  than  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  reducing  the  number  of  dependents  on  Fort 
Niagara.  When  the  inroads  on  provisions  grew  serious, 
the  Indians  were  encouraged  to  go  on  the  war-path. 
But  so  exceedingly  severe  was  the  winter,  so  deep  was 
the  snow  on  the  trails,  that  not  until  the  middle  of  Feb- 


74         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

niary  could  any  parties  be  induced  to  set  out.  The 
number  camped  around  the  fort,  consuming  the  King's 
pork,  beef,  flour  and  rum,  rose  as  we  have  seen,  to 
more  than  5,000.     Many  starved  and  many  froze. 

Much  could  be  said  regarding  the  British  policy  of 
dealing  with  the  Indians  at  Fort  Niagara,  but  I  may 
only  touch  upon  the  subject  at  this  time.  Haldimand, 
and  behind  him  the  British  Ministry,  placed  great 
reliance  upon  them.  The  uniform  instruction  was 
that  the  Indians  should  be  maintained  as  allies.  On 
April  10,  1778,  Lord  George  Germaine  wrote  to  Gen. 
Haldimand  that  the  designs  of  the  rebels  against  Ni- 
agara and  Detroit  were  not  likely  to  be  successful  as 
long  as  the  Six  Nations  continued  faithful.  Presents, 
honors,  and  the  full  license  of  the  tomahawk  and  scalp- 
ing-knife  were  allowed  them.  With  a  view  to  promot- 
ing their  fidelity,  Joseph  Brant  was  made  a  colonel. 
Significant,  too,  was  the  settling  of  a  generous  allowance 
for  life  upon  Brant's  sister.  Sir  William  Johnson's  con- 
sort ;  which  act  was  approved,  about  this  time,  by  the 
august  council  at  Whitehall. 

The  British  watched  the  state  of  the  Indian  mind  as 
the  sailor  watches  his  barometer  at  the  coming  of  a 
storm.  And  the  Indian  mind,  though  always  cunning, 
v;as  sometimes  childlike  in  the  directness  and  simplicity 
of  its  conclusions.  The  constant  flight  to  Fort  Niag- 
ara of  refugee  Tories  was  remarked  by  the  savages, 
and  in  turn  noted  and  reported  to  Gen.  Haldimand. 
<■  ^  The  frequent  passing  of  white  people  to  Niagara, ' ' 
wrote  Capt.  John  Johnson  to  Gen.  Carleton,  October 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         75 

6,  1778,  '*  is  much  taken  note  of  by  the  Indians,  who 
say  they  are  running  away  and  that  they  (the  Tories) 
have  begun  the  quarrel  and  leave  them  (the  Indians)  to 
defend  it. ' '  However,  Johnson  counted  on  being  able 
to  change  their  minds,  for  he  added :  **  I  hope  in  my 
next  to  inform  you  of  giving  the  rebels  an  eternal 
thrashing. ' ' 

The  usual  British  good  sense  —  the  national  trades- 
man's instinct  —  seems  to  have  been  temporarily  sus- 
pended, held  in  abeyance,  at  the  demands  of  these 
Indians.  In  his  report  of  May  12,  '78,  Col.  Bolton 
writes  that  he  has  approved  bills  for  nearly  ^^18,000 
*'for  sundries  furnished  savages  which  Maj.  Butler 
thought  absolutely  necessary,  notwithstanding  all  the 
presents  sent  to  their  posts  last  year;  2,700  being 
assembled  at  a  time  when  I  little  expected  such  a 
number,  obliged  me  to  send  to  Detroit  for  a  supply  of 
provisions,  and  to  buy  up  all  the  cattle,  etc.,  that 
could  possibly  be  procured,  otherwise  this  garrison 
must  have  been  distressed  or  the  savages  offended,  and 
of  course,  I  suppose,  would  have  joined  the  rebels. 
Even  after  all  that  was  done  for  them  they  scarce 
seemed  satisfied."  In  June  he  writes  that  only  eight 
out  of  twenty  puncheons  of  rum  ordered  for  Fort  Niag- 
ara had  been  received,  and  that  ' '  much  wine  has  been 
given  to  the  savages  that  was  intended  for  this  post. ' ' 

One  reads  in  this  old  correspondence,  with  mingled 
amusement  and  amazement,  of  the  marvelous  atten- 
tions paid  these  wily  savages.  Childlike,  whatever  they 
saw  in  the  cargoes  of  the  merchants,  they  wanted,  and 


76         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

England  humored  and  pampered  them,  lest  they  trans- 
fer their  affections.  We  have  Guy  Johnson's  word  for 
it,  under  date  of  Niagara,  July  3,  1780,  that  "many 
of  the  Indians  will  no  longer  wear  tinsel  lace,  and  are 
become  good  judges  of  gold  and  silver.  They  fre- 
quently demand  and  have  received  wine,  tea,  coffee, 
candles  and  many  such  articles,  and  they  are  frequently 
nice  in  the  choice  of  the  finest  black  and  other  cloth 
for  blankets,  and  the  best  linnen  and  cambrick  with 
other  things  needless  to  enumerate.  .  .  .  The  Six 
Nations  are  not  so  fond  of  gaudy  colors  as  of  good  and 
substantial  things,  but  they  are  passionately  fond  of 
silver  ornaments  and  neat  arrows."  Elsewhere  in 
these  letters  a  requisition  for  port  wine  is  explained  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  demanded  by  the  chiefs  when 
they  were  sick  —  dainty  treatment,  truly,  for  stalwart 
savages  whose  more  accustomed  diet  was  cornmeal  and 
water,  and  who  could  feast,  when  fortune  favored,  on 
the  reeking  entrails  of  a  dead  horse. 

Now  and  then,  it  is  true,  advantages  were  taken  of 
the  Indians  in  ways  which,  presumably,  it  was  thought 
they  would  not  detect ;  all,  we  must  grant,  in  the  in- 
terest of  economy.  One  was  in  the  matter  of  powder. 
The  Indians  were  furnished  with  a  grade  inferior  to 
the  garrison  powder.  This  was  shown  by  a  series  of 
tests  made  at  Fort  Niagara  by  order  of  Brig.  Gen. 
Powell  —  Col  Bolton's  successor  —  on  July  10,  1782. 
We  may  suppose  it  to  have  been  an  agreeable  summer 
day,  that  there  was  leisure  at  the  fort  to  indulge  in 
experiments,  and  that  there  were  no  astute  Indians  on 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         yj 

hand  to  be  unduly  edified  by  the  result.  At  Gen. 
Powell's  order  an  eight-inch  mortar  was  elevated  to 
forty-five  degrees,  and  six  rounds  fired,  to  find  out  how 
far  one  half  a  pound  of  powder  would  throw  a  forty-six 
pound  shell.  The  first  trial,  with  the  garrison  powder, 
sent  the  shell  239  yards.  For  rounds  two  and  three  In- 
dian Department  powder  was  used  ;  the  fine-glazed  kind 
sent  the  shell  eighty-two  yards,  the  coarser  grain  car- 
ried it  but  seventy-nine  yards.  Once  more  the  garri- 
son powder  was  used ;  the  shell  flew  243  yards,  while 
a  second  trial  of  the  two  sorts  of  Indian  Department 
powder  sent  it  but  eighty-four  and  seventy-six  yards, 
or  about  three  to  one  in  favor  of  the  white  man.  With 
the  garrison  powder,  a  musket  and  carbine  ball  went 
through  a  two  and  one -quarter-inch  oak  plank,  at  the 
distance  of  fifty  yards,  and  lodged  in  one  six  inches 
behind  it ;  but  with  the  Indian  powder  these  balls 
would  not  go  through  the  first  plank. 

This  seems  like  taking  a  base  advantage  of  the  trust- 
ful Indian  ally,  especially  since  he  was  to  use  his  pow- 
der against  the  common  foe,  the  American  rebel ;  in 
reality,  however,  the  Indians  were  wasteful  and  irrespon- 
sible, and  squandered  their  ammunition  on  the  little 
birds  of  the  forest  and  even  in  harmless  but  expensive 
salvos  into  the  empty  air. 

Another  economy  was  practiced  in  the  Indian  De- 
partment :  when  the  stock  ran  low  the  rum  was  wa- 
tered. Sometimes  the  precious  contents  of  the  casks 
were  augmented  one  third,  sometimes  even  two  thirds, 
with  the  more  abundant  beverage  from  Niagara  River,  so 


yS         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara, 

that  the  garrison  rum,  like  the  garrison  powder,  '  '■  car- 
ried * '  two  or  three  times  as  well  as  did  that  of  the 
Indian  Department ;  but  whether  this  had  a  salutary- 
effect  upon  the  thirsty  recipients  is  a  problem  the  solu- 
tion of  which  lies  outside  the  range  of  the  exact  his- 
torian. 

Difficult  as  it  was  to  hold  the  allegiance  of  the  sav- 
age, it  was  harder  yet  —  nay,  it  was  impossible  —  to 
make  him  fight  according  to  the  rules  of  civilized  war- 
fare. The  British  Government  from  the  Ministry  down 
stand  in  history  in  an  equivocal  position  in  this  matter. 
Over  and  over  again  in  the  correspondence  which  I 
have  examined,  one  finds  vigorous  condemnation  of 
the  Indian  method  of  slaughter  of  women  and  chil- 
dren, and  the  torture  of  captives.  Over  and  over  again 
the  officers  are  urged  not  to  allow  it ;  and  over  and 
over  again  they  report,  after  a  raid,  that  they  deplore 
the  acts  of  wantonness  which  were  committed,  and 
which  they  were  unable  to  prevent.  But  nowhere  do  I 
find  any  suggestion  that  the  services  of  the  Indians  be 
dispensed  with.  Throughout  the  Revolution,  the  Sen- 
ecas,  Cayugas,  Onondagas  and  Delawares  —  for  the 
last,  also,  were  often  at  Fort  Niagara  —  were  sent 
against  the  Americans,  by  the  British.  The  Oneidas, 
as  is  well  known,  were  divided  and  vacillating  in  their 
allegiance.  In  August,  1780,  132  of  them  who  hith- 
erto had  been  ostensibly  friendly  to  the  Americans, 
were  induced  to  go  to  Niagara  and  give  their  pledges 
to  the  British.  When  they  arrived  Guy  Johnson  put 
on  a  severe  front  and  censured  them  for  their  lack  of 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         79 

steadfastness  to  the  King.  According  to  him,  some 
500  Oneidas  in  all  came  to  the  fort  that  year  and 
declared  themselves  ready  to  fight  the  Americans. 
The  last  party  that  arrived  delivered  up  to  the  Super- 
intendent a  commission  which,  he  says,  ''the  Rebels 
had  issued  with  a  view  to  form  the  Oneidas  into  a 
corps,  .  .  .  they  also  delivered  up  to  me  the 
Rebel  flag.  " 

So  far  as  I  am  aware  this  is  the  first  mention  of  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara.  By 
resolution  of  June  14,  1777,  the  American  Congress 
had  decreed  ''That  the  flag  of  the  thirteen  United 
States  be  thirteen  stripes  alternate  red  and  white  ;  that 
the  union  be  thirteen  stars,  white  in  a  blue  field,  repre- 
senting a  new  constellation.  "  A  little  over  three 
years  had  passed  since  John  Paul  Jones  had  first  flung 
to  the  breeze,  at  the  mast  of  his  ship  Ranger,  this 
bright  banner  of  the  new  nation.  It  was  not  to  appear 
in  a  British  port  for  two  and  a  half  years  to  come ; 
sixteen  years  were  to  pass  before  it  could  fly  triumphant 
over  the  old  walls  of  Fort  Niagara  ;  but  France  had 
saluted  it,  Americans  were  fighting  for  it,  and  although 
it  is  first  found  here  in  hostile  hands,  yet  I  like  to  reck- 
on from  that  August  day  in  1780,  the  beginning,  if  in 
prophecy  only,  of  the  reign  of  that  new  constellation 
over  the  Niagara  region. 

Col.  Bolton's  life  at  Fort  Niagara  was  one  of  infinite 
care.  Besides  the  routine  of  the  garrison,  he  was  con- 
stantly harrassed  by  the  demands  of  the  Indians,  whom 
the  British  did  not  wish  to  feed,  but  whom  they  dared 


8o         Wtih  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara, 

not  offend.  The  old  fort,  which  now  sleeps  so  quietly 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  was  a  busy  place  in  those 
days.  There  was  constant  coming  and  going.  Schoon- 
ers, snows'  and  batteaux  with  provisions  from  Que- 
bec, or  with  munitions  of  war  or  detachments  of  troops 
for  Detroit  or  Michillimackinac,  were  constantly  arriv- 
ing. I  question  if  the  lower  Niagara  were  not  busier 
in  that  period  than  it  is  now.  The  transfer  of  supplies 
around  the  falls  —  the  '^ great  portage" — was  hard 
and  tedious  work.  Not  Quebec,  but  Great  Britain,  was 
the  real  base  of  supplies.  There  were  many  deten- 
tions, and  constant  interruption  in  shipment,  at  every 
stage  of  the  way.  Sometimes  a  cargo  of  salt  pork 
from  Ireland  or  flour  from  London  would  reach  Que- 
bec too  late  in  the  summer  to  admit  of  transfer  to  the 
posts  until  spring.  Sometimes,  in  crossing  Lake  On- 
tario, the  provisions  would  be  damaged  so  as  to  be  unfit 
for  use ;  sometimes  they  would  be  lost.  Then  not 
only  the  garrison  at  Niagara  had  to  face  starvation,  but 
Col.  Bolton  soon  had  his  ears  ringing  with  messages 
and  maledictions  from  Detroit  and  Mackinac,  buried 
still  farther  in  the  wilderness,  and  all  looking  to  Ni- 
agara for  food  and  clothing.  At  such  times  of  distress 
the  upper  posts  questioned  whether  goods  intended  for 
them  were  not  irregularly  held  at  Niagara  ;  the  mean- 
while. Col.  Bolton  would  be  straining  every  effort  to  get 
provisions  enough  to  keep  his  own  command  from  star- 

1  A  snow  is  a  three-masted  craft,  the  smallest  mast  abaft  the  mainmast 
being  rigged  with  a  try-sail.  Possibly,  on  the  lakes  where  shipyards  were 
primitive,  this  type  was  not  always  adhered  to  ;  but  the  correspondence 
and  orders  of  the  period  under  notice  carefully  discriminate  between 
snows  and  schooners. 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         8 1 

vation.  Indian  supplies  and  traders'  goods,  too,  were 
liable  to  loss  and  detention ;  and  on  very  slight  provo- 
cation, the  demands  of  the  Indians  grew  insolent. 

There  were  constant  desertions,  too,  among  the 
troops.  Indeed,  there  seems  never  to  have  been  a  time 
at  Fort  Niagara  when  desertions  were  not  frequent,  and, 
more  than  once,  so  numerous  as  to  threaten  the  very 
existence  of  the  garrison.  This,  however,  not  in  Bol- 
ton's time.  As  the  correspondence  shows,  he  enjoyed 
the  utmost  confidence  of  his  superiors,  and  there  is 
nothing  to  indicate  that  his  men  were  not  as  devoted 
to  him  as  any  officer  could  expect  at  a  frontier  post 
where  service  meant  hard  work  and  possible  starvation. 

Frequent  as  had  been  the  raids  against  the  settle- 
ments before  the  expedition  of  Sullivan,  they  became 
thereafter  even  more  frequent ;  and,  if  less  disastrous, 
they  were  so  merely  because  the  American  frontier 
settlements  had  already  paid  their  utmost  tribute  to  But- 
ler and  Brant.  The  expeditions,  along  certain  much- 
worn  trails,  had  to  go  farther  and  farther  in  order  to 
find  foes  to  attack  or  cattle  to  steal.  This  was  especi- 
ally so  in  the  valleys  of  the  Mohawk  and  Susquehanna ; 
yet  in  one  quarter  and  another  this  border  warfare 
went  on,  and  there  is  no  lack  of  evidence,  in  the 
official  correspondence,  of  its  effectiveness.  Thus, 
writing  from  Fort  Niagara,  August  24,  1780,  Guy 
Johnson  reports  :  * '  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  your 
excellency  that  the  partys  who  subdivided  after  Capt. 
Brant's  success  at  the  Cleysburg  " — an  expedition 
which  he  had  previously  reported  —  '  *  have  all  been 


82         With  Bo  lion  at  Fort  Niagara, 

successful ;  that  Capt.  Brant  has  destroyed  twenty 
houses  in  Schoharie  and  taken  and  killed  twelve  persons, 
besides  releasing  several  women  and  children.  Among 
the  prisoners  is  Lieut.  Vrooman,  the  settlement  of  that 
name  being  that  which  was  destroyed.  The  other 
divisions  of  that  party  have  been  also  successful,  par- 
ticularly Capt.  David's  party,  and  the  number  of  killed 
and  taken  by  them  within  that  time,  so  far  as  it  has 
come  to  my  hands,  is,  killed,  thirty-five,  taken,  forty- 
six,  released,  forty.  .  .  .  The  remaining  inhabit- 
ants on  the  frontiers  are  drawing  in  so  as  to  deprive 
the  rebels  of  any  useful  resources  from  them.  I  have 
at  present  on  service,  several  partys  that  set  out  within 
one  and  the  same  week,  and  I  apprehend  that  falling 
on  the  frontiers  in  different  places  at  the  same  time  will 
have  a  good  effect."  September  18th  he  writes,  tell- 
ing of  the  destruction  of  **  Kleysberg,"  "  containing  a 
church,  100  houses  and  as  many  barnes,  besides  mills 
and  500  cattle  and  horses."  In  the  same  letter  he 
wrote:  **I  have  now  405  warriors  out  in  different 
parties  and  quarters,  exclusive  of  some  marched  from 
Kadaragawas.  .  .  .  The  greater  part  of  the  rest 
are  at  their  planting  grounds,  and  many  sick  here,  as 
fevers  and  fluxes  have  for  some  time  prevailed  at  this 
Post. ' '  October  1st  he  reports  the  number  of  men  in 
the  war  parties  sent  out  from  Fort  Niagara  as  892.  A 
return,  dated  June  30,  1781,  shows  that  the  war  parties 
**have  killed  and  taken  during  the  season  already  150 
persons."  September  30th  he  reports  an  expedition 
under  Walter  Johnson  and  Montour,  in   which  about 


With  Bolto7i  at  Fort  Niagara.         Z^y 

**  twenty  rebels"  were  killed;  and  on  that  day  Capt. 
Nelles  arrived  with  eleven  prisoners  taken  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. A  postscript  to  this  letter  says  :  ''Since  writ- 
ing, I  have  received  the  disagreeable  news  of  the  death 
of  the  gallant  Montour,  who  died  of  the  wounds  he 
received  in  the  action  before  related.  He  was  a  chief 
of  the  greatest  spirit  and  readiness,  and  his  death  is  a 
loss."  We  can  well  believe  that;  for  Montour,  who, 
from  the  American  view-point,  had  the  reputation  of 
being  a  fiend  incarnate,  had  indeed  shown  ''spirit  and 
readiness ' '  in  stealing  cattle,  burning  log  cabins,  kill- 
ing and  scalping  their  occupants  or  bringing  them 
captive  to  Fort  Niagara. 

In  another  paper  ^  I  have  stated  that  I  have  traced  out 
the  individual  experiences  in  captivity  of  thirty-two  of 
these  Americans,  who  were  taken  by  the  Indians  and 
British  and  brought  as  prisoners  to  Fort  Niagara.  How 
much  might  be  done  on  this  line  may  be  judged  from  a 
review  of  Col.  Johnson's  transactions,  furnished  by  that 
officer  at  Montreal,  March  24,  1782,  in  which  it  is 
stated  that  the  number  of  Americans  killed  and  taken 
captive  by  parties  from  Fort  Niagara,  amounted  at  that 
time  to  near  900.  The  time  was  rife  with  like  experi- 
ences. For  instance,  there  was  the  famous  raid  on 
Cherry  Valley,  from  which  Mrs.  Jane  Campbell  and 
her  four  children,  after  a  long  detention  among  the 
Indians,  were  brought  to  Fort  Niagara.  There  was 
Jane  Moore,  who  was  also  taken  at  Cherry  Valley,  and 
who  subsequently  was  married  to  Capt.  Powell  of  the 

1  See  "What  Befel  David  Ogden,"  in  this  volume. 


84         With  Boltofi  at  Fort  Niagara, 

Niagara  garrison  in  the  winter  of  1779  —  the  cere- 
mony, by  the  Church  of  England  service,  so  impress- 
ing Joseph  Brant  that  he  immediately  led  up  to  the 
minister  the  squaw  with  whom  he  had  been  living  for  a 
long  time,  and  insisted  on  being  married  over  again, 
white  man's  fashion.  There  was  Lieut.  Col.  Stacia, 
another  prisoner  from  Cherry  Valley,  whose  head 
Molly  Brant  wanted  for  a  football.  Some  of  the  stories 
of  these  captives,  like  that  of  Alexander  Harper,  who 
ran  the  gauntlet  at  Fort  Niagara  (the  ordeal  apparently 
being  made  light  in  his  case),  are  familiar  to  readers 
of  our  history  ;  others,  I  venture  to  say,  are  unknown. 
For  instance,  there  were  John  and  Robert  Brice,  two 
little  boys,  who  were  taken  in  1779  near  Rensselaerville 
by  a  scouting  party,  and  brought,  with  other  prisoners 
and  eight  scalps,  to  Fort  Niagara.  But  they  did  not 
come  together.  Robert,  who  was  but  eleven  years  old, 
was  taken  to  Fort  Erie  and  sold  to  a  lake  sailor  for  the 
sum  of  £,  3.  This  little  Son  of  the  Revolution  was  kept 
on  the  upper  lakes  until  1783,  when  he  was  summoned 
to  Fort  Niagara  where  he  met  his  brother  John,  from 
whom  he  had  parted  near  the  mouth  of  the  Unadilla 
River  some  four  years  before.  They  were  sent  to 
Montreal  with  nearly  200  liberated  captives,  and  ulti- 
mately the  boys  reached  Albany  and  their  friends. 
Then  there  is  the  story  of  Nancy  Bundy,  who,  her  hus- 
band and  children  being  killed,  was  brought  to  Fort 
Niagara  and  sold  into  servitude  for  S8.  There  was  the 
famous  Indian  fighter,  Moses  Van  Campen,  whose  ad- 
ventures  and  captivity  in  our  region  are  the  subject 


With  Bolton  at  Fo7^t  Niagara.         85 

of  a  whole  book.  There  were  Horatio  Jones  and 
Jasper  Parrish,  who  i)assed  from  Indian  captives  into 
the  useful  role  of  interpreters  for  the  whites. 

Thus  I  might  go  on,  naming  by  the  score  the  heroes 
and  heroines  of  Indian  captivities  whose  sufferings 
and  whose  adventures  make  up  the  most  romantic 
chapter  in  our  home  annals,  as  yet  for  the  most  part 
unwritten.  But  I  take  time  now  to  dv/ell,  briefly  as 
possible,  upon  but  one  of  these  captivities  —  one  of 
the  notable  incidents  during  Col.  Bolton's  time  at  Fort 
Niagara.  This  was  the  capture  of  the  Gilbert  family. 
It  made  so  great  a  stir,  even  in  those  days  accustomed 
to  war  and  Indian  raids,  that  in  1784  a  little  book 
was  published  in  Philadelphia  giving  the  history  of  it. 
The  original  edition'  has  long  since  been  one  of  the 
scarcest  of  Americana.  But  in  the  unpublished  corre- 
spondence between  Gen.  Haldimand  and  the  officers  at 
Fort  Niagara,  I  find  sundry  allusions  to  ''  the  Quaker's 
family,"  and  statements  which  go  to  show  that  the 
British  at  least  were  disposed  to  treat  them  well,  and 

1  "  A  Narrative  of  the  Captivity  and  Sufferings  of  Benjamin  Gilbert  and 
his  Family  ;  Who  were  surprised  by  the  Indians,  and  taken  from  their 
Farms,  on  the  Frontiers  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  Spring,  1780.  Phila- 
delphia :  Printed  and  sold  by  Joseph  Crukshank,  in  Market-street,  be- 
tween Second  and  Third-streets.  M  DCC  LXXXIV."  i2mo,  pp.  iv-Q6. 
It  was  reprinted  in  London  (i2mo,  pp.  123)  in  1785,  and  again  (i2mo,  pp. 
124,  "  Reprinted  and  sold  by  James  Phillips,  George-Yard,  Lombard 
street")  in  17^0.  A  "third  edition,  revised  and  enlarged,"  i6mo,  pp.  24c, 
bears  date  Philadelphia,  1848.  Of  a  later  edition  (8vo,  pp.  38,  Lancaster, 
Pa.,  li'Qo)  privately  printed,  only  150  copies  were  issued.  The  work  was 
written  by  William  Walton,  to  whom  the  facts  were  told  by  the  Gil- 
berts after  their  return.  (Field.)  Ketchum  made  some  use  of  the  "  Narra- 
tive" in  his  "  Buffalo  and  the  Senecas,"  as  has  Wm.  Clement  Bryant  and 
perhaps  other  local  writers.  See  also  "  Account  of  Benjamin  Gilbert," 
Vol.  III.,  Register  of  Pennsylvania.  A  reissue  of  the  original  work, 
carefully  edited,  would  not  only  be  a  useful  book  for  students  of  the 
history  of  Buffalo  and  the  Niagara  region,  but  would  offer  much  in  the 
way  of  extraordinary  adventure  for  the  edification  of  "the  general 
reader." 


86         Wttk  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

to  effect  their  exchange  as  soon  as  possible.  Notwith- 
standing, it  was  a  long  and  cruel  captivity,  and  pre- 
sents some  features  of  peculiar  significance  in  our  local 
history. 

About  sunrise  on  the  morning  of  April  25,  1780, 
a  party  of  eleven  painted  Indians  suddenly  issued  from 
the  woods  bordering  Mahoning  Creek,  in  Northampton 
County,  Penn.  They  had  come  from  Fort  Niagara,  and 
were  one  of  those  scalping  parties  for  the  success  of 
which  so  many  encouraging  messages  had  passed  from 
Whitehall  to  Quebec,  and  from  Quebec  to  the  frontier, 
and  to  stimulate  which  Guy  Johnson  had  been  so  lavish 
with  the  fine  linen,  silver  ornaments  and  port  wine. 
The  party  was  commanded  by  Rowland  Montour,  John 
Montour  being  second  in  command.  Undiscovered, 
they  surrounded  the  log  house  of  the  old  Quaker 
miller,  Benjamin  Gilbert.  With  tomahawk  raised  and 
flint-locks  cocked  they  suddenly  appeared  at  door  and 
windows.  The  old  Quaker  offered  his  hand  as  a 
brother.  It  was  refused.  Partly  from  the  Quaker 
habit  of  non-resistance,  partly  from  the  obvious  cer- 
tainty that  to  attempt  to  escape  meant  death,  the  whole 
household  submitted  to  be  bound,  while  their  home 
was  plundered  and  burned.  Loading  three  of  Gil- 
bert's horses  with  booty,  and  placing  heavy  packs  on 
the  back  of  each  prisoner  old  enough  to  bear  them,  the 
expedition  took  the  trail  for  Fort  Niagara,  more  than 
200  miles  away.  This  was  *'war"  in  ''the  good  old 
days." 

There  were  twelve  prisoners  in  the  party,  of  whom 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         8  7 

but  five  were  men.  The  patriarch  of  the  household, 
Benjamin,  was  sixty-nine  years  old  ;  Elizabeth,  his  wife, 
was  fifty-five  ;  Joseph,  Benjamin's  son  by  a  former  wife, 
aged  forty-one ;  another  son,  Jesse,  aged  nineteen, 
and  his  wife  Sarah,  the  same  age.  There  were  three 
younger  children,  Rebecca,  Abner  and  Elizabeth, 
respectively  sixteen,  fourteen  and  twelve ;  Thomas 
Peart,  son  to  Benjamin  Gilbert's  wife  by  a  former 
husband,  aged  twenty-three  ;  a  nephew,  Benjamin  Gil- 
bert, aged  eleven  ;  a  hired  man,  Andrew  Harrigar, 
twenty-six  ;  and  Abigail  Dodson,  the  fourteen -year-old 
daughter  of  a  neighbor ;  she  had  had  the  ill-luck  to 
come  to  Gilbert's  mill  that  morning  for  grist,  and  was 
taken  with  the  rest.  Half  a  mile  distant  lived  Mrs. 
Gilbert's  oldest  son,  Benjamin  Peart,  aged  twenty- 
seven,  his  wife  Elizabeth,  who  was  but  twenty,  and 
their  nine-months-old  child.  Montour  added  these  to 
his  party,  making  fifteen  prisoners  in  all,  burned  their 
house  and  urged  all  along  the  trail,  their  first  stop  being 
near  '^Mochunk."     (Mauch  Chunk.) 

I  must  omit  most  of  the  details  of  their  march  north- 
ward. On  the  evening  of  the  first  day  Benjamin  Peart 
fainted  from  fatigue  and  Rowland  Montour  was  with 
difficulty  restrained  from  tomahawking  him.  At  night 
the  men  prisoners  were  secured  in  a  way  which  was 
usual  on  these  raids,  throughout  Western  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  during  those  dismal  years.  The  Indians 
cut  down  a  sapling  five  or  six  inches  in  diameter,  and 
cut  notches  in  it  large  enough  to  receive  the  ankles  of 
the  prisoners.     After  fixing  their  legs  in  these  notches. 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niap-ara 


^> 


they  placed  another  pole  over  the  first,  and  thus  secured 
them  as  in  stocks.  This  upper  pole  was  then  crossed 
at  each  end  by  stakes  driven  into  the  ground.  The 
prisoners  thus  lay  on  the  ground,  on  their  backs. 
Straps  or  ropes  around  their  necks  were  made  fast  to 
near-by  trees.  Sometimes  a  blanket  was  granted  them 
for  covering,  sometimes  not.  What  rest  might  be  had, 
preparatory  to  another  day's  forced  march,  I  leave  to 
the  imagination. 

During  the  early  stages  of  this  march  the  old  couple 
were  constantly  threatened  with  death,  because  unable 
to  keep  up.  On  the  fourth  day  four  negroes  who 
claimed  that  they  were  loyal  to  the  King,  that  they 
had  escaped  from  the  Americans  and  had  set  out  for 
Fort  Niagara,  were  taken  up  by  Montour  from  a  camp 
where  he  had  left  them  on  his  way  down  the  valley. 
These  negroes  frequently  whipped  and  tortured  the 
prisoners  for  sport,  Montour  making  no  objection. 
On  the  4th  of  May,  the  Indians  separated  into  two 
companies;  one  taking  the  westward  path,  and  with 
this  party  went  Thomas  Peart,  Joseph  Gilbert,  Benja- 
min Gilbert  —  the  little  boy  of  eleven  —  and  Sarah, 
wife  of  Jesse.  The  others  kept  on  the  northerly 
course.  Andrew  Harrigar,  terrified  by  the  Indian 
boast  that  those  who  had  gone  with  the  other  party 
**  were  killed  and  scalped,  and  you  may  expect  the  same 
fate  tonight,"  took  a  kettle,  under  pretence  of  bringing 
water,  but  ran  away  under  cover  of  darkness.  After  in- 
credible hardships  he  regained  the  settlements.  His 
escape   so   angered    Rov/land    Montour  that   he  threw 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         89 

Jesse  Gilbert  down,  and  lifted  his  tomahawk  for  the 
fatal  blow;  Elizabeth,  Jesse's  mother,  knelt  over  him, 
pressed  her  head  to  her  son's  brow  and  begged  the 
captain  to  spare  his  life.  Montour  kicked  her  over  and 
tied  them  both  by  their  necks  to  a  tree ;  after  a  time, 
his  passion  cooling,  he  loosed  them,  bade  them  pack 
up  and  take  the  trail.  This  is  but  a  sample  incident. 
I  pass  over  many. 

None  suffered  more  on  the  march  than  Elizabeth 
Peart,  the  girl  mother.  The  Indians  would  not  let  her 
husband  relieve  her  by  carrying  her  child,  and  she  was 
ever  the  victim  of  the  whimsical  moods  of  her  captors. 
At  one  time  they  would  let  her  ride  one  of  the  horses ; 
at  another,  would  compel  her  to  walk,  carrying  the 
child,  and  would  beat  her  if  she  lagged  behind.  By 
the  14th  of  May  Elizabeth  Gilbert  had  become  so 
weak  that  she  could  only  keep  the  trail  when  led  and 
supported  by  her  children.  On  this  day  the  main 
party  was  rejoined  by  a  portion  of  the  party  that  had 
branched  off  to  westward  ;  with  them  were  two  of  the 
four  captives,  Benjamin  Gilbert,  Jr.,  and  Sarah,  wife  of 
Jesse.  On  this  day  old  Benjamin  was  painted  black, 
the  custom  of  the  Indians  with  prisoners  whom  they 
intended  to  kill.  Later  on  they  were  joined  by  Brit- 
ish soldiers,  who  took  away  the  four  negroes  and  did 
something  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  white 
prisoners.  The  expedition  had  exhausted  its  provis- 
ions and  all  that  had  been  taken  from  the  Gilberts. 
A  chance  hedgehog,  and  roots  dug  in  the  woods,  sus- 
tained them  for  some  days.     May  the  17th  they  ferried 


90         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

across  the  Genesee  River  on  a  log  raft.  Provisions 
were  brought  from  Fort  Niagara,  an  Indian  having  been 
sent  ahead,  on  the  best  horse ;  and  on  the  morning  of 
the  21st  of  May  they  heard,  faintly  booming  beyond 
the  intervening  forest,  the  morning  gun  at  Fort  Niag- 
ara. An  incident  of  that  day's  march  was  a  meeting 
with  Montour's  wife.  She  was  the  daughter  of  the 
great  Seneca  Sayenqueraghta,  the  man  who  led  the  In- 
dians at  Wyoming,'  and  whose  influence  was  greater 
in  this  region,  at  the  time  we  are  studying,  than  even 
that  of  Brant  himself.  He  was  the  Old  King  of  the 
Senecas,  called  Old  Smoke  by  the  whites.  Smoke's 
Creek,  the  well-known  stream  which  empties  into 
Lake  Erie  just  beyond  the  southwest  limit  of  Buffalo, 
between  South  Park  and  Woodlawn  Beach,  preserves 
his  name  to  our  day.  It  was  there  that  he  lived  in 
his  last  years ;  and  somewhere  on  its  margin,  in  a 
now  unknown  grave,  he  was  buried.  His  daughter 
the  *Trincess,"  was,  next  to  Molly  Brant,  the  grandest 
Indian  woman  of  the  time  on  the  Niagara.  As  she 
met  the  wretched  Gilberts,  ^*  she  was  dressed  altogether 
in  the  Indian  costume,  and  was  shining  with  gold  lace 
and  silver  baubles."  To  her  Rowland  Montour  pre- 
sented the  girl  Rebecca,  as  a  daughter.  The  princess 
took  a  silver  ring  from  her  finger  and  put  it  on  Re- 
becca's, which  act  completed  the  adoption  of  this  little 

1  Ketchum  says  he  could  not  have  done  so.  ("  History  of  Buffalo,"  Vol. 
I.,  p.  328.)  But  Ketchum  was  misled,  as  many  writers  have  been  in  as- 
cribing the  leadership  to  Brant.  My  assertion  rests  on  the  evidence  of 
contemporary  documents  in  the  Archives  at  Ottawa,  especially  the  MS. 
"  Anecdotes  of  Capt.  Joseph  Brant,  Niagara,  1778,"  in  the  handwriting  of 
Col.  Daniel  Claus.  Wm.  Clement  Bryant  published  a  part  of  it  in  his 
"Captain  Brant  and  the  Old  King,"  q.  v. 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.        91 

Quaker  maid  of  sixteen  into  one  of  the  most  famous  — 
possibly  the  most  infamous  —  family  of  the  Niagara 
region  during  the  Revolutionary  period. 

At  a  village  not  far  from  Fort  Niagara,  apparently 
near  the  present  Tuscarora  village  on  the  heights  east 
of  Lewiston,  Montour  painted  Jesse,  Abner,  Rebecca 
and  Elizabeth  Gilbert,  Jr.,  as  Indians  are  painted,  and 
gave  each  a  belt  of  wampum  ;  but  while  these  marks  of 
favor  were  shown  to  the  young  people,  the  mother,  be- 
cause of  her  feebleness,  was  continually  the  victim  of 
the  displeasure  and  the  blows  of  the  Indians.  On  May 
23d,  being  at  the  Landing  —  what  is  now  Lewiston 
—  they  were  visited  by  Captains  Powell  and  Dace 
from  the  fort,  and  the  next  day,  just  one  month 
from  the  time  of  their  capture,  they  trudged  down 
the  trail  which  is  now  the  pleasant  river  road,  towards 
the  old  fort,  protected  with  difficulty  from  the  blows  of 
the  Indians  along  the  way. 

Now  followed  the  dispersion  of  this  unhappy  family. 
After  the  Indian  custom,  the  young  and  active  prisoners 
were  sought  by  the  Indians  for  adoption.  Many  brave 
American  boys  went  out  to  live,  in  the  most  menial 
servitude,  among  the  Senecas  and  other  tribes  who 
during  the  later  years  of  the  Revolution  lived  on  the 
Genesee,  the  Tonawanda,  Buffalo,  Cazenove,  Smoke's, 
and  Cattaraugus  creeks.  The  old  man  and  his  wife 
and  their  son  Jesse  were  surrendered  to  Col.  Johnson. 
Benjamin  Peart,  Mrs.  Gilbert's  son,  was  carried  off  to 
the  Genesee.  The  other  members  of  the  party  were 
held  in  captivity  in  various  places  ;  but  I  may  only  stay 


92  With  Bolton  at  Fori  Niagara. 

now  to  note  what  befel  the   little    Rebecca   and   her 
sister-in-law,  Elizabeth  Peart. 

As  already  stated,  Rebecca  had  been  adopted  by 
Rowland  Montour's  wife.  In  the  general  allotment  of 
prisoners,  her  cousin,  Benjamin  Gilbert,  the  lad  of 
eleven,  also  fell  to  this  daughter  of  Sayenqueraghta. 
She  took  the  children  to  a  cabin  where  her  father's 
family,  eleven  in  number,  were  assembled.  After  .the 
usual  grand  lamentation  for  the  dead,  whose  places 
were  supposed  now  to  be  filled  by  the  white  prisoners, 
this  royal  household  departed  by  easy  stages  for  their 
summer's  corn-planting.  They  tarried  at  the  Landing, 
while  clothing  was  had  from  the  fort.  The  little 
Quaker  girl  was  dressed  after  the  Indian  fashion, 
"with  short-clothes,  leggins  and  a  gold-laced  hat"; 
while  Benjamin,  "as  a  badge  of  his  dignity,  wore  a 
silver  medal  hanging  from  his  neck."  They  moved 
up  to  Fort  Schlosser  ( just  above  the  falls,  near  where 
the  present  power-house  stands),  thence  by  canoe  to 
Fort  Erie  ;  then  "  four  miles  further,  up  Buffalo  Creek, 
where  they  pitched  their  tent  for  a  settlement."  Here 
the  women  planted  corn ;  but  the  little  Rebecca,  not 
being  strong,  was  allowed  to  look  after  the  cooking. 
The  whole  household,  queen,  princess  and  slave,  had 
to  work.  The  men  of  course  were  exempt ;  but  the 
chief  advantage  of  Sayenqueraghta' s  high  rank  was 
that  he  could  procure  more  provisions  from  the  King's 
stores  at  Fort  Niagara  than  could  the  humbler  mem- 
bers of  the  tribe.  The  boy  Ben  had  an  easy  time  of 
it.      He  roamed  at  will  with  the  Indian  boys  over  the 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         93 

territory  that  is  now  Buffalo ;  fished  in  the  lake, 
hunted  or  idled  without  constraint,  and  it  is  recorded 
that  he  was  so  pleased  with  the  Indian  mode  of  life, 
that  but  for  his  sister's  constant  admonition  he  would 
have  dropped  all  thought  of  return  to  civilization,  and 
cheerfully  have  become  as  good  an  Indian  as  the  best  of 
them.     At  eleven  years  of  age  savagery  takes  easy  hold. 

These  children  lived  with  Montour's  Indian  rela- 
tives for  over  two  years ;  sharing  in  the  feasts  when 
there  was  plenty,  going  pinched  with  hunger  on  the 
frequent  occasions  when  improvidence  had  exhausted 
the  supply.  There  were  numerous  expeditions,  afoot 
and  by  canoe,  to  Fort  Niagara.  On  one  occasion 
Rebecca,  with  her  Indian  family,  were  entertained  by 
British  officers  at  Fort  Erie,  when  Old  Smoke  drank  so 
much  wine  that  when  he  came  to  paddle  his  canoe 
homeward,  across  the  river,  he  narrowly  escaped  an 
upset  on  the  rocky  reef,  just  outside  the  entrance  to 
Buffalo  Creek.  On  every  visit  to  Fort  Niagara  Re- 
becca would  look  for  release  ;  but  although  the  officers 
were  kind  to  her,  they  did  not  choose  to  interfere  with 
so  powerful  a  family  as  Montour's.  It  v/as  shortly 
after  one  of  these  disappointments  that  she  heard  of 
her  father's  death.  For  some  months  she  was  sick; 
then  came  news  of  the  death  of  her  Indian  father, 
Rowland  Montour,  who  succumbed  to  wounds  received 
in  the  attack  already  noted.  There  was  great  mourn- 
ing in  the  lodge  on  Buffalo  Creek,  and  Rebecca  had  to 
make  a  feint  of  sorrow,  weeping  aloud  with  the  rest. 

In  the  winter  of  '81-' 82  a  scheme  was  devised  by 


94         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

friends  at  the  fort  for  abducting  her  from  the  Indians, 
but  it  was  not  undertaken.  In  the  spring  of  '82  per- 
emptory orders  came  from  Gen.  Haldimand  that  all  the 
remaining  members  of  the  Gilbert  family  who  were  still 
in  captivity  should  be  taken  from  the  Indians  ;  but  after 
a  council  fire  had  been  lighted,  Old  Smoke,  Montour's 
widow,  and  the  rest  of  the  family,  Rebecca  and  Ben 
included,  moved  six  miles  up  the  lake  shore  —  appar- 
ently to  Smoke's  Creek  —  where  they  stayed  several 
weeks  making  maple  sugar.  Then,  a  great  pigeon 
roost  being  reported,  men  and  boys  went  off  to  it, 
some  fifty  miles,  and  the  delighted  young  Ben  went 
too.  Of  all  the  Gilbert  captives  he  alone  seems  to 
have  had  experiences  too  full  of  wholesome  adventure 
and  easy  living  to  warrant  the  expenditure  of  the  least 
bit  of  sympathy  upon  him.  But  sooner  or  later  the 
wily  Indians  had  to  heed  Sir  Frederick's  command, 
and  on  the  1st  of  June,  1782,  after  upwards  of  two 
years  of  captivity,  Rebecca  and  her  cousin  were  re- 
leased at  Fort  Niagara,  and  two  days  later,  with  others, 
embarked  for  Montreal. 

Far  more  cheerless  were  the  experiences  of  Eliza- 
beth Peart.  She  was  parted  from  her  husband,  adopted 
by  a  Seneca  family,  and  was  also  brought  to  raise  corn 
on  Buffalo  Creek.  Early  in  her  servitude  among  the 
Indians  her  babe  was  taken  from  her  and  carried  across 
to  Canada.  She  was  but  twenty  years  old  herself ;  the 
family  that  had  taken  her  came  by  canoe  to  Buffalo 
Creek,  where  they  settled  for  the  corn-planting.  This 
was  in  the  spring  of  1780.     All  manner  of  drudgery 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         95 

and  burdens  were  put  upon  her.  Her  work  was  to 
cultivate  the  corn.  Falling  sick,  the  Indians  built  a 
hut  for  her  by  the  side  of  the  cornfield,  and  then 
utterly  neglected  her.  Here  she  remained  through  the 
summer,  regaining  strength  enough  to  care  for  and 
gather  the  corn ;  when  this  was  done,  her  Indian 
father  permitted  her  to  come  and  live  again  in  the 
family  lodge.  At  one  time  a  drunken  Indian  attacked 
her,  knocked  her  down,  and  dragged  her  about,  beat- 
ing her.  At  another,  all  provision  failing,  she  tramped 
with  others  four  days  through  the  snow  to  Fort  Niag- 
ara. Here  Capt.  Powell's  wife  —  who  had  been  a 
prisoner  herself — interceded  in  Elizabeth's  behalf, 
but  to  no  avail.  She  was  however  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  see  her  babe,  which  was  being  cared  for  by 
an  Indian  family  on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  river,  op- 
posite Fort  Niagara.  This  privilege  was  gained  for 
the  poor  mother  by  bribing  her  Indian  father  with  a 
bottle  of  rum.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  this  was  the  best 
use  to  which  a  bottle  of  rum  was  put  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary War.  But  back  to  Buffalo  Creek  the  unhappy 
mother  had  to  come.  Her  release  was  finally  ob- 
tained by  artifice.  Being  allowed  to  visit  Fort  Niag- 
ara, where  she  had  some  needlework  to  do  for  the 
white  people,  she  feigned  sickness,  and  by  one  excuse 
and  another  the  Indians  were  put  off  until  she  could  be 
shipped  away  to  Montreal. 

Of  the  Gilbert  family  and  those  taken  with  them  by 
Montour,  only  the  old  man  died  in  captivity.  The 
adventures  of  each  one  would  make  a  long  story,  but 


96         Wzlh  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara, 

may  not  be  entered  upon  here.  By  the  close  of  '82 
they  were  all  released  from  the  Indians,  and  after  a 
detention  at  Montreal,  reached  their  friends  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  set  about  the  reestablishment  of  homes. 

Beyond  question,  Elizabeth  Peart  and  Rebecca  Gil- 
bert were  the  first  white  women  ever  on  the  site  of  the 
present  city  of  Buffalo.  They  were  brave,  patient, 
patriotic  girls ;  no  truer  Daughters  of  the  American 
Revolution  are  known  to  history.  It  would  seem 
fitting  that  their  memory  should  be  preserved  and  their 
story  known  —  much  fuller  than  I  have  here  sketched 
it  —  by  the  patriotic  Daughters  of  the  Revolution  of 
our  own  day,  who  give  heed  to  American  beginnings 
in  this  region. 

I  have  dwelt  at  length  on  the  Gilbert  captivity,  not 
more  because  of  its  own  importance  than  to  illustrate 
the  responsibilities  which  constantly  rested  on  the  com- 
mandant at  Niagara,  at  this  period.  We  now  turn  to 
other  phases  of  the  service  which  engaged  the  atten- 
tion and  taxed  the  endurance  of  Col.  Bolton. 

From  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Canada  in  1760 
down  to  the  opening  of  the  Revolution,  there  had  been 
a  slow  but  steady  growth  of  shipping  on  the  lakes, 
especially  on  Lake  Ontario.  On  this  lake,  as  early  as 
1767,  there  were  four  brigs  of  from  forty  to  seventy 
tons,  and  sixteen  armed  deck -cutters.  Besides  the 
*'  King's  ships  "  there  were  still  much  travel  and  traffic 
by  means  of  canoes  and  batteaux.  One  of  the  first 
effects  of  the  war  with  the  American  colonies  was  to 
beget  active  ship-building  operations  by  the  British  ; 


Wztk  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.        9  7 

for  Lake  Ontario,  at  Oswegatchie,  Oswego  and  Niag- 
ara; and  for  Lake  Erie,  at  Navy  Island,  Detroit  and 
Pine  River.  An  official  return  made  in  July,  1778, 
the  summer  after  Col.  Bolton  assumed  command  at 
Niagara,  enumerates  twelve  sailing  craft  built  for 
Lake  Ontario  since  the  British  gained  control  of  that 
lake  in  1759,  and  sixteen  for  Lake  Erie ;  seven  of  the 
Lake  Ontario  boats  had  been  cast  away,  two  were  laid 
up  and  decayed  ;  so  that  at  this  time  —  midsummer  of 
'78  —  there  were  still  in  service  only  the  snow  Haldi- 
mand,  eighteen  guns,  built  at  Oswegatchie  in  1771  ; 
the  snow  Seneca,  eighteen  guns,  built  in  1777  ;  and  the 
sloop  Caldwell,  two  guns,  built  in  1774.  A  memo- 
randum records  that  Capt.  Andrews,  in  the  spring  of 
1778,  sought  permission  to  build  another  vessel  at 
Niagara,  to  take  the  place  of  the  Haldimand,  which,  he 
was  informed,  could  not  last  more  than  another  year. 
The  vessel  built,  in  accordance  with  this  recommenda- 
tion, was  a  schooner ;  her  construction  was  entrusted  to 
Capt.  Shank,  at  Niagara,  across  the  river  from  the  fort. 
We  may  be  sure  that  Col.  Bolton  visited  the  yard  from 
time  to  time  to  note  the  progress  of  the  work.  There 
was  discussion  over  her  lines.  ''  Capt.  Shank  was  told 
that  he  was  making  her  too  flat-bottomed,  and  that  she 
would  upset. ' '  The  builder  laughed  at  his  critics  and 
stuck  to  his  model.  She  was  launched,  named  the 
Ontario,  and  was  hastened  forward  to  completion,  for  the 
King's  service  had  urgent  need  of  her. 

Col.  Bolton  had  long  been  in  bad  health,  wearied 
with  the  cares  and  perplexities  of  his  position  and  eager 


98         With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

to  get  away  from  Fort  Niagara.  One  source  of  con- 
stant annoyance  to  his  military  mind  was  the  traders' 
supplies,  which  turned  the  fort  into  a  warehouse  and 
laid  distasteful  duties  upon  its  commandant.  His  letters 
contain  many  allusions  to  the  ' '  incredible  plague  and 
trouble  caused  by  merchants'  goods  frequently  sent 
without  a  single  person  to  care  for  them."  "Last 
year,"  so  he  wrote  in  May,  '78,  **  every  place  in-  this 
fort  was  lumbered  with  them,  and  vessels  were  obliged 
to  navigate  the  lakes  until  Nov.  30th."  The  vessels 
were  primarily  for  the  King's  service,  but  when  unem- 
ployed were  allowed  to  be  used  in  transporting 
merchants'  goods,  under  certain  regulations.  The 
next  statement  in  the  same  letter  gives  some  idea  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  transactions  involved  in  the  various 
departments  in  this  region  at  the  period:  ''I  have 
drawn  a  bill  of  ^14,760-9-5  "—nearly  $74,000  — 
"  on  acct.  of  sundries  furnished  Indians  by  Maj. 
Butler,  also  another  on  acct.  of  Naval  Dept.  at  Detroit 
for  ;^4, 070-18-9.  Between  us  I  am  heartily  sick  of 
bills  and  accounts  and  if  the  other  posts  are  as  expen- 
sive to  Government  as  this  has  been  I  think  Old 
England  had  done  much  better  in  letting  the  savages 
take  possession  of  them  than  to  have  put  herself  to  half 
the  enormous  sum  she  has  been  at  in  keeping  them. 
Neither  does  the  climate  agree  with  my  constitution, 
which  has  already  suffered  by  being  employed  many 
years  in  the  West  Indies  and  Florida,  for  I  have  been 
extremely  ill  the  two  winters  I  have  spent  here  with 
rheumatism  and  a  disorder  in  my  breast. ' ' 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.         99 

One  source  of  annoyance  to  Bolton  was  a  detachment 
of  Hessians  which  was  sent  to  augment  the  garrison  at 
Fort  Niagara.  Col.  Bolton  did  not  find  them  to  his 
liking,  nor  was  life  at  a  backwoods  post  at  all  congenial 
to  these  mercenaries,  fighting  England's  battles  to  pay 
their  monarch's  debts.  They  refused  to  work  on  the 
fortifications  at  Niagara ;  whereupon,  in  November, 
1779,  Col.  Bolton  packed  them  ofi"  down  to  Carleton 
Island.  Alexander  Fraser,  in  charge  of  that  post, 
wrote  to  Gen.  Haldimand  that  he  had  ordered  the 
**jagers"  to  be  replaced  by  a  company  of  the  34th. 
**  Capt.  Count  Wittgenstein,"  he  added,  '*  fears  bad 
consequences  should  the  Jagers  be  ordered  to  return." 
Nowhere  in  America  does  the  British  employment  of 
Hessian  troops  appear  to  have  been  less  satisfactory 
than  on  this  frontier.  At  Carleton  Island,  as  at  Niag- 
ara, they  refused  to  work,  many  of  them  were  accused 
of  selling  their  necessaries  for  rum,  and  the  Count  de 
Wittgenstein  himself  was  reprimanded. 

There  were  difficulties,  too,  with  the  lake  service. 
Desertion  and  discontent  followed  an  attempt  to  shorten 
the  seamen's  rations.  In  the  summer  of  '78,  the 
sailors  on  board  the  snow  Seneca,  at  Niagara,  asked  to 
be  discharged,  alleging  that  their  time  had  expired  the 
preceding  November,  and  the  yet  more  remarkable 
reason  that  they  objected  to  the  service  because  they 
had  been  brought  up  on  shore  and  life  on  the  rolling 
deep  of  Lake  Ontario  afforded  ''no  opportunity  of 
exercising  our  Religion,  neither  does  confinement 
agree  with  our  healths. ' '     Like  many  lake  sailors  at  this 


lOO       With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara. 

period  they  were  probably  French  Canadian  Catholics, 
with  loyalty  none  too  strong  to  the  British  cause. 

Bolton  stuck  to  his  post  throughout  that  season,  the 
year  of  alarm  that  followed,  and  the  succeeding  period 
of  distress.  The  most  frequent  entries  in  his  letters 
record  the  arrival  of  war  parties,  and  his  anxiety  over 
the  enormous  expense  incurred  for  the  Indians  by  Maj. 
Butler.  ' '  Scalps  and  prisoners  are  coming  in  every 
day,  which  is  all  the  news  this  place  affords, ' '  he  writes 
in  June,  '78;  and  again,  the  same  month:  '*  Ninety 
savages  are  just  arrived  with  thirteen  scalps  and  two 
prisoners,  and  forty  more  with  two  scalps  are  expected. 
All  of  these  gentry,  I  am  informed,  must  be  clothed.'" 
While  there  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  been  an  open 
break  between  Bolton  and  Butler,  yet  the  former 
looked  with  dismay,  if  not  disapproval,  upon  the  end- 
less expenditure  incurred  for  the  Indians.  In  August, 
1778,  he  wrote:  *'  Maj.  Butler,  chief  of  the  Indian 
Department,  gives  orders  to  the  merchants  to  supply 
the  savages  with  everything  to  answer  their  demands, 
of  which  undoubtedly  he  is  the  best  judge  and  only 
person  who  can  satisfy  them  or  keep  them  in  temper. 
He  also  signs  a  certificate  that  the  goods  and  cash 
issued  and  paid  by  his  order  were  indispensably  neces- 
sary for  the  government  of  His  Majesty's  service.     The 


1  What  became  of  all  the  scalps  brought  in  to  Fort  Niagara  during  tliese 
years,  and  delivered  up  to  the  British  officers,  if  not  for  pay,  certainly 
for  presents  ?  The  human  scalp,  properly  dried,  is  not  readily  perishable, 
if  cared  for.  Very  many  of  them  —  from  youthful  heads  or  those  white 
with  age,  the  long  tresses  of  women  and  the  soft  ringlets  of  children  — 
became  the  property  of  officers  at  this  post.  Little  is  said  on  this  subject 
in  the  correspondence  ;  we  do  not  see  them  with  flags  and  other  trophies 
in  the  cathedrals  and  museums  of  England.    What  became  of  them  ? 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.       loi 

commanding  officer  of  this  post  is  thus  obliged  to  draw 
bills  for  the  amount  of  all  these  accounts,  of  which  it  is 
impossible  he  can  be  a  judge  or  know  anything  about. 
.  .  .  I  only  mention  these  things  to  show  Yr 
Excellency  the  disagreeable  part  that  falls  to  my  lot  as 
commanding  officer  ;  besides  this  is  such  a  complicated 
command  that  even  an  officer  of  much  superior  abilities 
than  I  am  master  of,  would  find  himself  sometimes  not 
a  little  embarrassed  at  this  Post. ' ' 

Bolton  was  seriously  ill  during  the  winter  of  '79-' 80, 
as  indeed  were  many  of  his  garrison.  In  April,  1780,  he 
reports  his  wretched  health  to  Gen.  Haldimand.  All 
through  the  succeeding  summer  he  stuck  to  his  post ; 
but  on  September  13th,  worn  out  and  discouraged,  he 
asked  to  be  allowed  to  retire  from  the  command  of  the 
upper  posts  and  lakes.  September  30th  he  again  wrote, 
begging  for  leave  of  absence.  Some  weeks  later  the 
desired  permission  was  sent,  and  Bolton  determined  to 
stay  no  longer.  Late  in  October  the  new  Ontario, 
which  Capt.  Shank  had  built  across  the  river  from  the 
fort,  was  finished  and  rigged  ;  she  carried  sixteen  guns, 
and  was  declared  ready  for  service.  She  was  ordered 
to  convey  a  company  of  the  34th  down  to  Carleton 
Island.  It  was  a  notable  departure.  The  season  was 
so  late,  no  other  opportunity  for  crossing  Lake  Ontario 
might  be  afforded  until  spring.  Lieut.  Royce,  with 
thirty  men  of  the  34th,  embarked,  under  orders;  so 
did  Lieut.  Colleton  of  the  Royal  Artillery.  Capt.  An- 
drews, superintendent  of  naval  construction,  at  whose 
solicitations  the  Ontario  had  been  built,  being  at  Fort 


I02       With  Bo  lion  at  Fort  Niagara, 

Niagara  at  the  time,  also  took  passage.  There  was  the 
full  complement  of  officers  and  crew.  Several  pas- 
sengers—  licensed  Indian  traders  and  fur  merchants, 
probably  —  crowded  aboard ;  and  among  those  who 
sailed  away  from  Fort  Niagara  that  last  October  day, 
Avas  Col.  Bolton.  It  was  the  Ontario's  first  voyage  ; 
and  we  may  be  sure  that  there  was  no  lack  of  specula- 
tion and  wise  opinion  in  the  throng  of  spectators- who 
watched  her  round  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
and  take  her  course  down  the  lake.  The  old  criticism 
about  her  flat  bottom  and  lack  of  draught  was  sure  to 
be  recalled.  But  the  Ontario,  with  her  notable  pas- 
senger list,  had  sailed,  and  the  only  port  she  ever 
reached  was  the  bottom  of  the  lake.  It  is  supposed 
she  foundered,  some  forty  miles  east  of  Niagara,  near 
a  place  called  Golden  Hill.  On  the  beach  there,  some 
days  after,  a  few  articles  were  found,  supposed  to  have 
come  ashore  ;  but  no  other  sign,  no  word  of  the  Ontario 
or  of  any  of  the  throng  that  sailed  in  her  has  been  had 
from  that  day  to  this.  In  due  time  news  of  the  loss 
reached  Quebec.  Sincere  but  short  were  the  expres- 
sions of  sorrow  in  the  correspondence  that  followed. 
^*  The  loss  of  so  many  good  officers  and  men,"  wrote 
Haldimand,  ''particularly  at  this  period,  and  the  dis- 
appointment of  forwarding  provisions  for  the  great  con- 
sumption at  the  upper  posts,  will  be  severely  felt. "  ^    It 

1  In  another  letter  to  Lord  George  Germaine,  dated  Nov.  20,  1780,  we 
have  a  few  additional  particulars.  It  is  probably  the  fullest  account  of 
this  calamity  in  existence.  "  It  is  with  great  concern,"  wrote  Haldimand, 
"  I  acquaint  your  Lordship  of  a  most  unfortunate  event  which  is  just 
reported  to  me  to  have  happened  upon  Lake  Ontario  about  the  ist. 
[Nov.,  1780]  A  very  fine  snow  [schooner]  carrying  16  guns,  which  was 
built  last  winter,  sailed  the  31st  ultimo  from  Niagara  and  was  seen  several 


With  Bolton  at  Fort  Niagara.       103 

was  the  fortune  of  war,  and  already  the  thought  turned 
to  those  who  had  depended  upon  a  return  cargo  of 
provisions  by  the  Ontario.  And  so  passes  Mason 
Bolton  out  of  the  history  of  Fort  Niagara. 

times  the  same  day  near  the  north  shore.  The  next  day  it  blew  very  hard, 
and  the  vessel's  boats,  binnacle,  gratings,  some  hats,  etc.,  were  found  upon 
the  opposite  shore,  the  wind  having  changed  suddenly,  by  Lt.  Col.  Butler 
about  forty  miles  from  Niagara,  on  his  way  from  Oswego,  so  there  cannot 
be  a  doubt  that  she  is  totally  lost  and  her  crew,  consisting  of  forty  seamen, 
perished,  together  with  Lt.  Col.  Bolton  of  the  King's  Regiment,  whom  I 
had  permitted  to  leave  Niagara  on  account  of  his  bad  state  of  health,  Lt. 
Colleton  of  the  Royal  Artillery,  Lt.  Royce  and  thirty  men  of  the  34th  Regi- 
ment, who  were  crossing  the  lake  to  reinforce  Carleton  Island.  Capt. 
Andrews  who  commanded  the  vessel  and  the  naval  armament  upon  that 
lake  was  a  most  zealous,  active,  intelligent  officer.  The  loss  of  so  many 
good  officers  and  men  is  much  aggravated  by  the  consequences  that  will 
follow  this  misfortune  in  the  disappointment  of  conveying  provisions 
across  the  lake  for  the  garrison  of  Niagara  and  Detroit,  which  are  iiot 
near  completed  for  the  win'er  consumption,  and  there  is  not  a  possibility 
of  affording  them  much  assistance  with  the  vessels  that  remain,  it  being 
dangerous  to  navigate  the  lake  later  than  the  20th  inst.,  particularly  as  the 
large  vessels  are  almost  worn  out.  The  master  builder  and  carpenters  are 
sent  off  to  repair  this  evil." 


What  Befel  David  Ogden. 


WHAT  BEFEL  DAVID  OGDEN. 


IT  WAS  my  privilege,  in  the  summer  of  1896,  to 
share  in  the  exercises  which  marked  the  Centen- 
nial of  the  delivery  of  Fort  Niagara  by  Great  Brit- 
ain to  the  United  States.  As  I  stood  in  that  old  strong- 
hold on  the  bank  above  the  blue  lake,  strolled  across 
the  ancient  parade  ground,  or  passed  from  one  historic 
building  to  another,  I  found  myself  constantly  forget- 
ting the  actual  day  and  hour,  and  slipping  back  a  cen- 
tury or  two.  There  was  a  great  crowd  at  Fort  Ni- 
agara on  this  August  day;  thousands  of  people  — 
citizens,  officials,  soldiers  and  pleasure -seekers ;  but 
with  them  came  and  went,  to  my  retrospective  vision, 
many  more  thousands  yet :  missionary  priests,  French 
adventurers,  traders,  soldiers  of  the  scarlet,  and 
of  the  buff  and  blue.  I  saw  Butler's  Rangers 
in  their  green  suits ;  and  I  saw  a  horde  of  savages, 
now  begging  for  rations  from  the  King's  stores,  now 
coming  in  from  their  forays,  famished  but  exultant, 
displaying  the  scalps  they  had  taken,  or  leading  their 
ragged  and  woebegone  captives.  It  was  upon  these 
captives,  whose  romantic  misfortunes  make  a  long 
and  dramatic  chapter  in  the  history  of  Fort  Niagara, 
that  my  regard  was  prone  to  center.  Their  stories 
have  nowhere  been  told,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  as  a 


io8  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

part  of  the  history  of  the  place ;  many  of  them  never 
can  be  told;  but  of  others  some  details  may  be 
recorded. 

Throughout  the  whole  period  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  Fort  Niagara  was  a  garrisoned  British  post,  of 
varying  strength.  It  was  the  supply  depot  for  all  arms 
and  provisions  which  were  destined  for  the  upper  posts 
of  Detroit  and  Michillimackinac ;  it  was  the  rendez- 
vous of  the  Senecas,  who  worked  the  Government  for 
all  the  blankets  and  guns,  trinkets  and  provisions  which 
they  could  get ;  it  was  the  headquarters  of  Col.  Guy 
Johnson,  Indian  Superintendent ;  and  it  was  the  rest- 
ing-place and  base  of  operations  of  They-en-dan- 
e-gey-ah  —  in  English,  Joseph  Brant ;  of  Butler  and  his 
rangers,  and  of  numerous  other  less  famous  but  more 
cruel  Indians,  British  and  Tory  leaders.  No  American 
troops  reached  Fort  Niagara  to  attack  it.  Only  once 
was  it  even  threatened.  Yet  throughout  the  whole 
period  of  the  war  parties  sallied  forth  from  Fort  Niag- 
ara to  plunder,  capture  or  kill  the  rebel  settlers  wher- 
ever they  could  be  reached. 

Sixty  years  ago  Judge  Samuel  De  Veaux  wrote  of 
this  phase  of  the  history  of  Fort  Niagara : 

This  old  fort  is  as  much  noted  for  enormity  and  crime,  as  for 
any  good  ever  derived  from  it  by  the  nation  in  occupation.  .  .  . 
During  the  American  Revolution  it  veas  the  headquarters  of  all 
that  was  barbarous,  unrelenting  and  cruel.  There,  were  congre- 
gated the  leaders  and  chiefs  of  those  bands  of  murderers  and  mis- 
creants, that  carried  death  and  destruction  into  the  remote  Ameri- 
can settlements.  There,  civilized  Europe  revelled  with  savage 
America  j  and  ladies  of  education  and  refinement  mingled  in  the 


What  Befel  David  Ogden,  1 09 

society  of  those  whose  only  distinction  was  to  wield  the  bloody 
tomahawk  and  scalping-knife.  There,  the  squaws  of  the  forest 
were  raised  to  eminence,  and  the  most  unholy  unions  between 
them  and  officers  of  the  highest  rank,  smiled  upon  and  counte- 
nanced. There,  in  their  strong  hold,  like  a  nest  of  vultures, 
securely,  for  seven  years,  they  sallied  forth  and  preyed  upon  the 
distant  settlements  of  the  Mohawks  and  Susquehannahs.  It  was 
the  depot  of  their  plunder  ;  there  they  planned  their  forays,  and 
there  they  returned  to  feast,  until  the  hour  of  action  came  again.' 

This  striking  passage,  which  the  worthy  author  did 
not  substantiate  by  a  single  fact,  may  stand  as  the  pres- 
ent text.  I  have  undertaken  to  trace  some  of  the 
flights  of  the  birds  of  prey  from  this  nest,  and  to  bring 
together  the  details  relating  to  the  captives  who  were 
brought  hither.  From  many  sources  I  have  traced  out 
the  narratives  of  thirty-two  persons  who  were  brought 
to  Fort  Niagara  captive  by  the  Indians,  during  the 
years  1778  to  1783.  Among  them  is  my  boy  hero 
Davy  Ogden,  whose  adventures  I  undertake  to  tell 
with  some  minuteness.  Just  how  many  American 
prisoners  were  brought  into  Fort  Niagara  during  this 
period  I  am  unable  to  say,  though  it  is  possible  that 
from  the  official  correspondence  of  the  time  figures 
could  be  had  on  which  a  very  close  estimate  could 
be  based.  My  examination  of  the  subject  warrants 
the  assertion  that  several  hundred  were  brought  in  by 
the  war  parties  under  Indian,  British  and  Tory  leaders. 
In  this  correspondence,  very  little  of  which  has  ever  been 
published,  one  may  find  such  entries  as  the  following  : 


1  "The  Falls  of    Niagara,  or  Tourist's  Guide,"  etc.,  by  S.  De  Veaux. 
Buffalo,  1839. 


I  lo  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

Guy  Johnson  wrote  from  Fort  Niagara,  June  30, 1781  : 

In  my  last  letter  of  the  24th  inst.  I  had  just  time  to  enclose  a 
copy  of  Lieut.  Nelles's  letter  with  an  account  of  his  success, 
since  which  he  arrived  at  this  place  with  more  particular  informa- 
tion by  which  I  find  that  he  killed  thirteen  and  took  seven  (the 
Indians  not  having  reckoned  two  of  the  persons  whom  they  left 
unscalped).     .     .     . 

Again : 

I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  to  Your  Excellency  a  general 
letter  containing  the  state  of  the  garrison  and  of  my  Department 
to  the  1st  inst.,  and  a  return,  at  the  foot,  of  the  war  parties  that 
have  been  on  service  this  year,  ...  by  which  it  will  appear 
that  they  have  killed  and  taken  during  the  season  already  150 
persons,  including  those  last  brought  in.     .     .     . 

Again  he  reports,  August  30,  1781 : 

The  party  with  Capt.  Caldwell  and  some  of  the  Indians  with 
Capt.  Lottridge  are  returning,  having  destroyed  several  settle- 
ments in  Ulster  County,  and  about  100  of  the  Indians  are  gone 
against  other  parts  of  the  frontiers,  and  I  have  some  large  parties 
under  good  leaders  still  on  service  as  well  as  scouts  towards  Fort 
Pitt.     .     .     . 

Not  only  are  there  many  returns  of  this  sort,  but 
also  tabulated  statements,  giving  the  number  of  prison- 
ers sent  down  from  Fort  Niagara  to  Montreal  on  given 
dates,  with  their  names,  ages,  names  of  their  captors, 
and  the  places  where  they  were  taken.  There  were 
many  shipments  during  the  summer  of  '83,  and  the 
latest  return  of  this  sort  which  I  have  found  in  the 
archives  is  dated  August  1st  of  that  year,  when  eleven 
prisoners  were  sent  from  the  fort  to  Montreal.  It  was 
probably  not  far  from  this  time  that  the  last  American 


What  Befel  David  Ogden.  1 1 1 

prisoner  of  the  Revolution  was  released  from  Fort 
Niagara.  But  let  the  reader  beware  of  forming  hasty 
conclusions  as  to  the  cruelty  or  brutality  of  the  British 
at  Fort  Niagara.  In  the  first  place,  remember  that 
harshness  or  kindness  in  the  treatment  of  the  helpless 
depends  in  good  degree  —  and  always  has  depended  — 
upon  the  temperament  and  mood  of  the  individual 
custodian.  There  were  those  in  command  at  Fort 
Niagara  who  appear  to  have  been  capable  of  almost 
any  iniquity.  Others  gave  frequent  and  conspicuous 
proofs  of  their  humanity.  Remember,  secondly,  that 
the  prisoners  primarily  belonged  to  the  Indians  who 
captured  them.  The  Indian  custom  of  adoption  — 
the  taking  into  the  family  circle  of  a  prisoner  in  place 
of  a  son  or  husband  who  had  been  killed  by  the  enemy 
—  was  an  Iroquois  custom,  dating  back  much  further 
than  their  acquaintance  with  the  English.  Many  of 
the  Americans  who  were  detained  in  this  fashion  by 
their  Indian  captors,  probably  never  were  given  over 
to  the  British.  Some,  as  we  know,  like  Mary  Jemi- 
son,  the  White  Woman  of  the  Genesee,  adopted  the 
Indian  mode  of  life  and  refused  to  leave  it.  Others 
died  in  captivity,  some  escaped.  Horatio  Jones  and 
Jasper  Parrish  were  first  prisoners,  then  utilized  as 
interpreters,  but  remained  among  the  Indians.^     And 

1  Capt.  Parrish  became  Indian  agent,  but  Capt.  Jones  held  the  office  of 
interpreter  for  many  years.  "  Their  councils  [with  the  Indians]  were  held 
at  a  council  house  belonging  to  the  Senecas  situated  a  few  rods  east  of  the 
bend  in  the  road  just  this  side  of  the  red  bridge  across  Buffalo  Creek  on 
the  Aurora  Plank  Road,  then  little  more  than  an  Indian  trail  ;  but  much  of 
their  business  was  transacted  at  the  store  of  Hart  &  Lay,  situated  on  the 
west  side  of  Main  Street,  midway  between  Swan  and  Erie  streets,  and  on 
the  common  opposite,  then  known  as  EUicott  Square."— MS.  narrative 
of  Capt.  Jones's  captivity,  by  Orlando  Allen,  in  possession  of  W^iUiam  L. 


1 1 2  What  Be/el  David  Ogden, 

in  many  cases,  especially  of  women  and  children,  we 
know  that  they  were  got  away  from  the  Indians  by  the 
British  officers  at  Fort  Niagara,  only  after  considerable 
trouble  and  expense.  In  these  cases  the  British  were 
the  real  benefactors  of  the  Americans,  and  the  kind- 
ness in  the  act  cannot  always  be  put  aside  on  the  mere 
ground  of  military  exchange,  prisoner  for  prisoner. 
Gen.  Haldimand  is  quoted  to  the  effect  that  he  ''does 
not  intend  to  enter  into  an  exchange  of  prisoners,  but 
he  will  not  add  to  the  distresses  attending  the  present 
war,  by  detaining  helpless  women  and  children  from 
their  families.'" 

I  have  spoken  of  Mrs.  Campbell,  who  was  held  some 
months  at  Kanadasaga.  The  letter  just  cited  further 
illustrates  the  point  I  would  make  : 

A  former  application  had  been  made  in  behalf  of  Col.  Campbell 
to  procure  the  exchange  of  his  family  for  that  of  Col.  Butler,  and 
the  officer  commanding  the  upper  posts  collected  Mr.  Campbell's 
and  the  family  of  a  Mr.  Moore,  and  procured  th«ir  release  from 
the  Indians  upon  the  above  mentioned  condition  with  infinite  trou- 
ble and  a  very  heavy  expense.  They  are  now  at  Fort  Niagara  where 
the  best  care  that  circumstances  will  admit  of,  is  taken  of  them, 
and  I  am  to  acquaint  you  that  Mrs.  Campbell  &  any  other 
women  or  children  that  shall  be  specified  shall  be  safely  con- 
ducted to  Fort  Schuyler,  or  to  any  other  place  that  shall  be 
thought  most  convenient,  provided  Mrs.  Butler  &  her  family 
consisting  of  a  like  number  shall  in  the  same  manner  have  safe 


Bryant  of  Buffalo.  Horatio  Jones  was  captured  about  1777  near  Bedford, 
Pa.,  being  aged  14  ;  was  taken  to  a  town  on  the  Genesee  River,  where  he 
ran  the  gauntlet,  was  adopted,  and  lived  with  the  Indians  until  liberated 
by  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  in  1784.  The  MS.  narrative  above  quoted 
is  Orlando  Allen's  chronicle  of  facts  given  to  him  by  Capts.  Jones  and 
Parrish,  and  is  of  exceptional  value. 

'  Brig.  Powell  to  Col.  van  Schaick,  Feb,  13,  1780-  Haldimand  Papers, 
"  Correspondence  relating  to  exchange  of  prisoners,    etc.,  B,  175. 


What  Befel  David  Ogden,  1 1 3 

conduct  to  my  advance  post  upon  Lake  Champlain  in  order  that 
she  may  cross  the  lake  before  the  ice  breaks  up. 

The  official  correspondence  carried  on  during  the 
years  1779  to  '83,  between  Gen.  Haldimand  and  the 
commanding  officers  at  Fort  Niagara  shows  in  more 
than  one  instance  that  American  prisoners  were  a 
burden  and  a  trouble  at  that  post.  Sometimes,  as  in 
the  case  of  Mrs.  Campbell,  who  was  finally  exchanged 
for  Mrs.  Butler  and  her  children,  they  were  detained 
as  hostages.  More  often,  they  were  received  from  the 
Indians  in  exchange  for  presents,  the  British  being 
obliged  to  humor  the  Indians  and  thus  retain  their 
invaluable  services.  Thus,  under  date  of  Oct.  2, 
1779,  we  find  Col.  Bolton  writing  from  Fort  Niagara  to 
Gen.  Haldimand:  '*I  should  be  glad  to  know  what 
to  do  with  the  prisoners  sent  here  by  Capt.  Lernault. 
Some  of  them  I  forwarded  to  Carleton  Island,  and 
Maj.  Nairne  has  applied  for  leave  to  send  them  to 
Montreal.  I  have  also  many  here  belonging  to  the 
Indians,  who  have  not  as  yet  agreed  to  deliver  them 
up-'" 

1 1  cannot  better  show  the  real  state  of  affairs  at  Fort  Niagara,  towards 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  than  by  submitting  the  following 
"  Review  of  Col.  Johnson's  Transactions,"  which  I  copy  from  the  Canadian 
Archives.  [Series  B,  Vol.  io6,  p.  123,  et  seq!\  I  do  not  know  that  it  has  ever 
been  printed.  Obviously  written  at  the  instigation  of  Col.  Johnson,  it  is 
perhaps  colored  to  justify  his  administrative  conduct ;  but  in  any  event  it 
IS  a  most  useful  picture  of  conditions  at  the  time.  Except  for  some  slight 
changes  in  punctuation  in  order  to  make  the  meaning  more  readily 
apparent,  the  statement  is  given  verbatim  : 

Montreal,  24th  March,  1782. 

Before  Colonel  Johnson  arrived  at  Niagara  in  1779  the  Six  Nations  lived 
in  their  original  possession  the  nearest  of  which  was  about  100  and  the 
farthest  about  300  miles  from  that  post.  Their  warriors  were  called  upon 
as  the  service  required  parties,  which  in  1776  amounted  to  about  70  men, 
and  the  expenses  attending  them  and  a  few  occasional  meetings  ought  to 
have  been  and  he  presumes  were  a  mere  Trifle  when  compared  with  what 
must  attend  their  situation  when  all  [were]  driven  to  Niagara,  exposed  to 


114  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

I  could  multiply  at  great  length  these  citations  from 
the  official  correspondence,  but  enough  has  been  given 
to  show  that  the  wholesale  condemnation  of  the  British, 
into  whose  hands  American  prisoners  fell,  is  not  war- 
ranted by  the  facts.  But  there  is  no  plainer  fact  in  it 
all  than  that  the  British  organized  and  aided  the  Indian 
raids,    and  were,  therefore,  joint  culprits  in  general. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  subject  of  scalps.  '  For 
many  years  Fort  Niagara   was   called  a  scalp-market. 

every  want,  to  every  temptation  and  with  every  claim  which  their  dis- 
tinguished sacrifices  and  the  tenor  of  Soloman  [solemn]  Treaties  had  en- 
titled them  to  from  Government.  The  years  1777  &  1778  exhibited  only  a 
larger  number  occasionally  employed  and  for  their  fidelity  and  attachment 
to  Government  they  were  invaded  in  1779  by  a  rebel  army  reported  to  be 
from  5  to  600  men  with  a  train  of  Artillery  who  forced  them  to  retire  to 
Niagara  leaving  behind  them  very  fine  plantations  of  corn  and  vegetables, 
with  their  cloathing,  arms,  silver  works.  Wampum  Kettles  and  Implements 
of  Husbandry,  the  collection  of  ages  of  which  were  distroyed  in  a  delib- 
erate manner  and  march  of  the  rebels.  Two  villages  only  escaped  that 
were  out  of  their  route. 

The  Indians  having  always  apprehended  that  their  distinguished  Loyalty 
might  draw  some  such  calamity  towards  them  had  stipulated  that  under 
such  circumstances  they  effected  [expected]  to  have  their  losses  made  up 
as  well  as  a  liberal  continuation  of  favors  and  to  be  supported  at  the  ex- 
pence  of  Government  till  they  could  be  reinstated  in  their  former  pos- 
sessions. They  were  accordingly  advised  to  form  camps  around  Niagara 
which  they  were  beginning  to  do  at  the  time  of  Colonel  Johnson's  arrival 
who  found  them  much  chagrined  and  prepared  to  reconcile  them  to  their 
disaster  which  he  foresaw  would  be  a  work  of  time  requiring  great  judge- 
ment and  address  in  effecting  which  he  was  afterwards  successful  beyond 
his  most  sanguine  expectations,  and  this  was  the  state  of  the  Indians  at 
Colonel  Johnson's  arrival.  As  to  the  state  and  regulation  of  Colonel  John- 
son's offices  and  department  at  that  period  he  found  the  duties  performed 
by  2  or  three  persons  the  rest  little  acquainted  with  them  and  considered  as 
less  capable  of  learning  them,  and  the  whole  number  inadequate  to  that  of 
the  Indians,  and  the  then  requisite  calls  of  the  service,  and  that  it  was 
necessary  after  refusing  the  present  wants  of  the  Indians  to  keep  their 
minds  occupied  by  constant  military  employment,  all  which  he  laid  before 
the  Commander  in  Chief  who  frequently  honoured  his  conduct  with  par- 
ticular approbation. 

By  His  Instructions  he  was  to  apply  to  Lieut.  Colonel  Bolton,  more 
especially  regarding  the  modes  of  this  place  and  the  public  accounts  &c 
from  whom  he  received  no  further  information,  than  that  they  were  kept, 
and  made  up  by  the  established  house  at  that  post,  and  consider  of  goods, 
orders  and  all  contingencies  and  disbursements  for  Indians,  ranging 
parties.  Prisoners,  &c.  That  they  were  generally  arranged  half  yearly  as 
well  as  the  nature  of  them  and  of  the  changeable  people  they  had  to  deal 
with  would  permit ;  that  he  believed  many  demands  were  therefore  out- 
standing and  that  he  was  glad  to  have  done  with  passing  [i.  e.,  granting  of 
passes]  as  it  was  impossible  for  him  or  any  person  that  had  other  duties  to 


What  Befel  David  Ogden.  1 1 5 

The  statement  is  frequent  in  early  writers  that  the  Brit- 
ish officers  offered  about  eight  dollars  for  every  Ameri- 
can's scalp,  and  that  it  was  this  offer,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  which  fired  the  Indians  to  their  most  horrible 
deeds.  Many  scalps  were  brought  into  Fort  Niagara, 
but  I  have  failed,  as  yet,  to  find  any  report,  or  figure, 
or  allusion,  in  the  British  archives  pointing  to  the  pay- 
ment of  anything  whatever.  Further  search  may  dis- 
cover something  to  settle  this  not  unimportant  matter ; 


discharge  to  give  them  much  attention.  At  which  Colonel  Johnson  ex- 
pressed his  concern  but  was  told  that  the  house  was  established  in  the 
business  and  thro'  the  impossibility  of  having  proper  circulating  cash  in 
another  channel!  they  advanced  all  monies  and  settled  all  accounts  and 
that  that  mode  had  been  found  most  eligable.  Colonel  Johnson  thereupon 
issued  the  best  orders  he  could  devise  for  the  preventing  abuses  and  the 
better  regulation  of  matters  relating  to  goods  payment  of  expenses,  and 
proceeding  to  the  discharge  of  the  principal  objects  of  his  duty,  he,  accord- 
ingly to  a  plan  long  since  proposed,  formed  the  Indians  into  Companies 
and  by  degrees  taught  them  to  feel  the  convenience  of  having  officers  set 
apart  to  each,  which  they  were  soon  not  only  reconciled  to  but  highly 
pleased  with,  by  which  means  he  gave  some  degree  of  method  and  form  to 
the  most  Independent  race  of  the  Indians,  greatly  facilitated  all  business 
with  them  and  by  a  prudent  arrangement  of  his  officers  those  who  were 
before  uninformed  became  in  a  little  time  some  of  the  most  approved  and 
useful!  persons  in  his  department,  being  constantly  quartered  at  such 
places  or  sent  on  some  services  as  tended  most  to  their  improvement  and 
the  public  advantage,  whilst  by  spiriting  up  and  employing  the  Indians 
with  constant  party  s  along  the  frontiers  from  Fort  Stanwix  to  Fort  Pitt 
he  so  harrassed  the  back  settlements,  as  finally  to  drive  numbers  of  them 
from  their  plantation  destroying  their  houses,  mills,  graneries,  &c,  fre- 
quently defeating  their  scouting  parties  killing  and  captivating  many  of 
their  people  amounting  in  the  whole  to  near  goo  and  all  this  with  few  or 
no  instances  of  savage  cruelty  exclusive  of  what  they  performed  when 
assisted  by  His  Majesty's  Troops  as  will  appear  from  his  returns.  By  these 
means  he  presented  [  ?  preserved]  the  spirit  of  the  Indians  and  kept  their 
minds  so  occupied  as  to  prevent  their  being  disgusted  at  the  want  of  Mili- 
tary aid,  which  had  been  long  their  Topic  and  which  could  then  be  afforded 
according  to  their  requisitions  ;  neither  did  he  admit  any  point  of  negocia- 
tion  during  this  period  of  peculiar  hurry,  for  knowing  the  importance  the 
Oneidas  &c.,  were  off  [of]  to  the  rebels  and  the  obstruction  they  gave  to 
all  means  of  intelligence  from  that  quarter,  he  sent  a  private  Belt  and 
message  on  pretence  of  former  Friendship  for  them,  in  consequence  of 
which  he  was  shortly  joined  by  430  of  them  of  [whom]  130  were  men  who 
have  since  on  all  occasions  peculiarly  distinguished  themselves,  and  after 
defeating  the  rebel  Invitation  to  the  Indians  he  by  the  renewal  of  the  great 
covenant  chain  and  war  Belt  which  he  sent  thro'  all  the  nations  animation 
to  the  most  western  Indians. 

Soon  after  with  intention  to  reduce  the  vast  consumption  of  provi- 
sions, he  with  much  difficulty  prevailed  on  part  of  the  Indians  to  begin 
some  new  plantation,  that  they  might  supply  themselves  with  grain,  &c; 


1 1 6  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

for  we  may  readily  believe  that  if  such  payments  were 
made  the  matter  would  be  passed  over  as  unobtrusively 
as  possible,  especially  in  the  reports  to  the  Ministry. 
The  facts  appear  to  be  that  warriors  who  brought  scalps 
into  Fort  Niagara  gave  them  to  the  Superintendent  ol 
Indian  Affairs,  or  his  deputy,  and  then  received  presents 
from  him.  Probably  these  presents  were  proportioned 
to  the  success  on  the  warpath. 

but  this  being  an  object  of  the  most  serious  and  National  concern,  and 
urged  in  the  strongest  terms  by  the  commander-in-chief,  Col.  Johnson, 
during  the  winter  1780,  took  indefatigable  pains  to  persuade  the  whole 
to  remove  and  settle  the  ensuing  season  on  advantageous  terms.  He  liad 
himself  visited  for  that  purpose  but  finding  that  their  treaties  with  and 
expectations  from  Government,  combined  with  their  natural  Indul- 
gence to  render  it  a  matter  of  infinite  difficulty  which  would  encrease  by 
delay  and  probably  become  unsurmountable  he  procured  some  grain  from 
Detroit  and  liberally  rewarded  the  families  of  Influence  at  additional  ex- 
pence  to  sett  the  example  to  the  rest  and  assisted  their  beginning  to  prevent 
a  disappointment  by  which  means  he  has  enabled  before  the  end  of  May 
last  to  settle  the  whole  about  3500  souls  exclusive  of  those  who  had  joined 
the  2  farms  that  had  not  been  distroyed  by  the  rebels  and  thereby  with  a 
little  future  assistance,  and  good  management  to  create  a  saving  of 
£100,000  pr  annum  N.  York  currency  at  the  rate  of  provision  is  worth  there 
to  Government,  together  with  a  reduction  of  rum  and  of  all  Indian  Ex- 
penses, as  will  appear  from  the  reduced  accounts  since  these  settlements 
were  made.  The  peculiar  circumstances  above  mentioned  and  the  con- 
stant disappointment  of  goods  from  the  Crown  at  the  times  they  were 
most  wanted  will  easily  account  for  the  occasional  expence.  The  house 
which  conducted  the  Business  at  Niagara  was  perpetually  thronged 
by  Indians  and  others.  Lieut.  Colonel  Bolton  often  sent  verbal  orders 
for  articles  as  did  some  other  secretaries  and  sometimes  necessity  re- 
quired it  and  often  they  were  charged  and  others  substituted  of  e(jual 
value  with  other  irregularities,  the  consequence  of  a  crew  of  Indians 
before  unknown,  of  an  encrease  of  duties,  and  the  necessity  for  sending 
them  to  plant  well  satisfied. 

The  number  of  prisoners  thrown  upon  Colonel  Johnson  from  time  to 
time  and  of  Indian  Chiefs  and  their  families  about  his  quarters  was  attended 
with  vast  trouble  and  an  Expense  which  it  was  impossible  to  ascertain 
with  exactness  and  when  he  directed  the  moiety  of  certain  articles  of 
consumption  to  be  placed  to  the  account  of  the  Crown,  he  soon  found 
himself  lower.  The  merchants  have  since  been  accused  of  fraud  by  a 
clerk  who  lived  some  time  with  them,  the  investigation  of  which  he  was 
called  suddenly  to  attend  and  he  now  finds  that  many  articles  undoubt- 
edly issued  have  been  placed  to  his  account  instead  of  their  [the]  Crown, 
and  many  false  and  malicious  insinuations  circulated  to  the  prejudice  of  his 
character  and  his  influence  with  the  Indians  which  is  rendered  the  more 
injurious  by  his  abrupt  departure  from  the  shortness  of  the  time,  which 
did  not  permit  his  calling  and  explaining  to  the  chiefs  the  reasons  for  his 
leaving  them  as  [he]  undoubtedly  should  have  done,  and  therefore,  and 
on  every  public  account,  his  presence  is  not  only  effected  [expected],  but 
is  become  more  necessary  among  them  than  ever.  This  brief  summary  is 
candidly  prepared  and  is  capable  of  sufficient  proof  and  Illustration. 


What  Befel  David  Ogden.  1 1 7 

These  facts  and  reflections  are  offered  to  assist  the 
reader's  ready  understanding  and  imagination  in  fol- 
lowing in  detail  the  adventures  of  one  out  of  the  many- 
prisoners  whose  paths  we  have  glanced  at ;  for  of  all 
these  unfortunate  patriots  who  were  thus  brought  to 
the  *  Cultures'  nest"  none  has  laid  hold  of  my  inter- 
est and  my  imagination  more  strongly  than  has  David 
Ogden.  He  was  born  in  a  troublous  time,  and  the 
hazards  of  border  life  were  his  sole  heritage,  save  alone 
a  sturdy  intrepidity  of  character  which  chiefly  com- 
mends him  to  me  as  the  typical  hero  of  all  the  heroic 
souls,  men,  women,  and  children,  who  came  through 
great  bereavements  and  hardships,  into  old  Fort  Niag- 
ara as  prisoners  of  war.  Davy  was  born  at  Fishkill, 
Dutchess  Co.,  New  York,  in  1764.  His  parents  made 
one  remove  after  another,  in  the  restless  American 
fashion,  for  some  years  taking  such  chances  of  better- 
ment as  new  settlements  afforded ;  first  at  Waterford, 
Saratoga  Co. ;  then  in  the  wilderness  on  the  head-waters 
of  the  Susquehanna  near  the  present  village  of  Hunts- 
ville  ;  then  up  the  river  to  the  settlement  known  in  those 
days  as  Newtown  Martin,  now  Middlefield  ;  and  later, 
for  safety,  to  Cherry  Valley.  Here  David's  mother  and 
her  four  boys  were  at  the  time  of  the  famous  massacre 
of  November,  1778.  When  the  alarm  was  given  Mrs. 
Ogden  snatched  a  blanket,  and  with  her  little  ones 
began  a  flight  through  the  woods  towards  the  Mohawk. 
With  them  also  fled  Col.  Campbell,  of  the  patriot 
militia.  Coming  to  a  deserted  cabin  whose  owner  had 
fled,  they  did  not  scruple  to  help  themselves  to  a  loaf 


1 1 8  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

of  bread,  which  Col.  Campbell  cut  up  with  his  sword. 
After  another  flight  of  some  hours  through  a  storm  of 
mingled  snow  and  rain,  they  came  to  the  house  of  one 
Lyons,  a  Tory,  who  was  absent,  presumably  because 
busied  in  the  black  work  at  Cherry  Valley.  Mrs. 
Lyons,  who  seems  to  have  shared  her  husband's  senti- 
ments, refused  the  refugees  anything  to  eat,  but  finally 
let  the  mother  and  children  spend  the  night  on  the 
floor.  Col.  Campbell  left  the  Ogdens  here  and  pushed 
on  alone  towards  Canajoharie  ;  while  Mrs.  Odgen  and 
her  hungry  little  ones  went  on  by  themselves  through 
the  snow.  That  day  they  came  to  a  more  hospitable 
house,  where  the  keen  suffering  of  that  adventure 
ended  ;  and  some  days  later,  on  the  Mohawk,  the  father 
rejoined  the  family,  he  also  having  escaped  the  massacre 
at  Cherry  Valley. 

This  incident  may  be  reckoned  the  mere  prelude  of 
our  Davy's  adventures ;  for  the  next  spring,  having 
reached  the  mature  age  of  fourteen,  he  volunteered  in 
the  service  of  his  country,  entered  upon  the  regular 
life  of  a  soldier,  and  began  to  have  adventures  on  his 
own  account.  The  year  that  followed  was  spent  in 
arduous  but  not  particularly  romantic  service.  He 
was  marched  from  one  point  to  another  on  the  Mohawk 
and  the  Hudson ;  saw  Andre  hanged  at  Tappan,  and 
finally  was  sent  to  the  frontier  again,  where  at  Fort 
Stanwix,^  in  the  spring  of  1781,  what  we  may  regard  as 
the  real  adventures  of  Davy  Ogden  began. 

A  party  of  eleven  wood-choppers  were  at  work  in 

1  Site  of  Rome,  N.  Y. 


What  Be/el  David  Ogden,  1 1 9 

the  heavy  timber  about  two  miles  from  the  fort,  and 
every  day  an  armed  guard  was  sent  out  from  the  garri- 
son to  protect  them.  On  March  2d,  Corporal  Samuel 
Betts  and  six  soldiers,  Davy  among  them,  were  de- 
tailed on  this  service.  I  conceive  of  my  hero  at  this 
time  as  a  sturdy,  well -seasoned  lad,  to  whom  wood- 
craft and  pioneer  soldiering  had  become  second  nature. 
I  would  like  to  see  him  among  city  boys  of  his  own 
age  to-day.  Most  things  that  they  know,  and  think 
of,  would  be  quite  out  of  his  range.  But  there  is  a 
common  ground  on  which  all  healthy,  high-minded 
boys,  of  whatever  time  or  station  in  life,  stand  on  a 
level.  I  do  not  know  that  he  had  ever  been  to  school, 
or  that  he  could  read,  though  I  think  his  mother  must 
have  looked  to  that.  But  I  do  know  that  he  was  well 
educated.  He  was  innocent  of  the  bicycle,  but  I'll 
warrant  he  could  skate.  I  know  he  could  swim  like 
an  otter  —  as  I  shall  presently  record  —  and  when  it 
came  to  running,  he  would  have  been  a  champion  of 
the  cinder-path,  to-day.  He  knew  the  ways  of  poverty 
and  of  self-denial ;  knew  the  signs  of  the  forest,  of 
wild  animal  and  Indian ;  and  best  of  all,  I  am  sure  he 
knew  just  why  he  was  carrying  a  heavy  flint-lock  in 
the  ragged,  hungry  ranks  of  the  American  ' '  rebels. ' '  It 
must  be  admitted,  I  linger  somewhat  over  my  hero ; 
but  I  like  the  lad,  and  would  have  the  reader  come 
into  sympathy  with  him.  I  can  see  him  now  as  he 
followed  the  corporal  out  of  the  fort  that  March  morn- 
ing. He  wore  the  three-cornered  cocked-up  hat  of 
the  prescribed  uniform,  and  his  powder-horn  was  slung 


1 20  What  Befel  David  Ogde7i, 

at  his  side.  The  whole  guard  very  likely  wore  snow- 
shoes,  for  the  snow  lay  three  feet  deep  in  the  woods, 
and  a  thaw  had  weakened  the  crust. 

Late  in  the  afternoon,  soldiers  and  wood-choppers 
were  startled  by  the  yells  of  Indians  and  Tories,  who 
had  gained  a  hill  between  them  and  the  fort.  Brant 
had  achieved  another  of  his  surprises,  and  there  was 
no  escape  from  his  party,  which  seemed  to  fill  the 
woods.  His  evident  intent  was  to  make  captives  and 
not  to  kill,  though  his  men  had  orders  to  shoot  or 
tomahawk  any  who  fired  in  self-defense.  Two  of 
Davy's  companions  were  wounded  by  the  enemy. 
One  of  them,  Timothy  Runnels,  was  shot  in  the 
mouth,  ''the  ball  coming  through  his  cheek  ;  and  yet 
not  a  tooth  was  disturbed,  a  pretty  good  evidence,  in 
the  opinion  of  his  comrades,  that  his  mouth  was  wide 
open  when  the  ball  went  in."  It  fared  more  seriously 
with  the  other  wounded  soldier.  This  man,  whose 
name  was  Morfat,  had  his  thigh  broken  by  a  bullet. 
The  Indians  rushed  upon  him  as  he  fell  at  Davy's  side, 
tomahawked  him,  scalped  him,  stripped  him  and  left 
him  naked  upon  the  snow,  thus  visiting  a  special  ven- 
geance upon  one  who  was  said  to  be  a  deserter  from 
the  British.  It  is  further  chronicled  that  Morfat  did 
not  immediately  die,  but  lived  until  he  was  found, 
hours  after,  by  a  party  from  the  fort,  finally  expiring  as 
his  comrades  bore  him  through  the  gate  of  Fort  Stanwix. 

Davy  Ogden  had  seen  this  dreadful  thing,  but  with 
no  sign  of  fear  or  sickness.  He  had  already  mastered 
that  scorn  of  suffering  and  death  which  always  com- 


What  Befel  David  Ogden,  1 2 1 

mended  the  brave  to  their  Indian  captors.  He  was 
ranged  up  with  the  other  prisoners,  and  Brant  asked  of 
each  his  name.  When  Davy  gave  his,  the  great  chief 
exclaimed : 

**  What,  a  son  of  Ogden  the  beaver-hunter,  that  old 
scouter  ?  Ugh  !  I  wish  it  were  he  instead  of  you  ! 
But  we  will  take  care  of  his  boy  or  he  may  become  a 
scouter  too  !  ' ' 

Thus  began  David's  captivity,  as  the  prisoner,  and 
perhaps  receiving  some  of  the  special  regard,  of  Brant 
himself.  There  could  have  been  little  doubt  in  Davy's 
mind,  from  the  moment  of  his  capture,  that  he  was  to 
be  carried  to  Fort  Niagara ;  yet  the  first  move  of  the 
party  was  characteristic  of  Indian  strategy ;  for  instead 
of  taking  the  trail  westward,  they  all  marched  off  to 
the  eastward,  coming  upon  the  Mohawk  some  miles  be- 
low Fort  Stanwix.  They  forded  the  river  twice,  the 
icy  water  coming  above  their  waists.  On  emerging 
upon  the  road  between  Fort  Stanwix  and  Fort  Herki- 
mer, Brant  halted  his  sixteen  prisoners  and  caused  the 
buckles  to  be  cut  from  their  shoes.  These  he  placed 
in  a  row  in  the  road,  where  the  first  passing  American 
would  be  sure  to  see  them.  There  was  something  of 
a  taunt  in  the  act,  and  a  good  deal  of  humor  ;  and  we 
may  be  sure  that  Joseph  Brant,  who  was  educated 
enough,  and  of  great  nature  enough,  to  enjoy  a  joke, 
had  many  a  laugh  on  his  way  back  to  Niagara  as  he 
thought  of  those  thirty-two  buckles  in  a  row. 

The  prisoners  tied  up  their  shoes  with  deerskin 
strings,  and  trudged  along  through  the  night  until  the 


122  What  Be/el  David  Ogden. 

gleam  of  fires  ahead  and  a  chorus  of  yells  turned  their 
thoughts  towards  the  stake  and  an  ignominious  mar- 
tyrdom. But  their  fate  was  easier  to  meet.  In  a  vol- 
ley of  sixteen  distinct  yells  for  the  prisoners  and  one 
for  the  scalp,  the  party  —  said  to  number  100  Indi- 
ans and  fifty  Tories  —  entered  the  first  camp,  where 
squaws  were  boiling  huge  kettles  of  samp  —  pounded 
corn  —  eaten  without  salt.  All  fared  equally  well,  and 
all  slept  on  the  ground  in  the  snow,  Davy  and  his  fel- 
lows being  guarded  by  British  soldiers. 

The  next  day's  march  brought  them  to  Oneida  Cas- 
tle, often  the  headquarters  of  Brant  in  his  expeditions. 
Here  the  Indians  dug  up  from  the  snow  a  store  of  un- 
husked  corn,  and  shelled  and  pounded  a  quantity  for 
their  long  march.  Here,  too,  Davy's  three-cornered 
Revolutionary  hat  was  taken  from  him,  and  in  its  place 
was  given  him  a  raccoon  skin.  All  of  the  captives  ex- 
cept the  corporal  were  similarly  treated  and  the  In- 
dians showed  them  how  to  tie  the  head  and  tail  to- 
gether. On  some  the  legs  stuck  up  and  on  others  the 
legs  hung  down.  I  do  not  know  how  Davy  wore  his 
—  with  a  touch  of  taste  and  an  air  of  gaiety,  no 
doubt ;  and  we  may  be  sure  it  made  a  better  head-cover- 
ing for  a  march  of  250  miles  at  that  season  than  would 
the  stiff  hat  he  had  lost.  Corporal  Betts  alone  was 
permitted  to  keep  his  hat,  as  insignia  of  rank,  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  he  got  some  comfort  out  of  it. 

It  would  take  too  long  to  give  all  the  dismal  details 
of  Davy's  dreary  tramp  across  the  State.  Other 
captivities  which  I  have  spoken  of  had  incidents  of 


What  Be/el  David  Ogden,  1 23 

more  dire  misery  and  greater  horror  than  befel  the 
party  to  which  Ogden  belonged ;  and  this  is  one 
reason  why  I  have  chosen  to  dwell  upon  his  adventures, 
because  my  aim  is,  by  a  personal  narrative,  to  illustrate 
the  average  experience  of  the  time. 

There  were  hundreds  of  American  prisoners  brought 
to  Fort  Niagara  during  the  period  we  are  studying,  but 
it  would  be  far  from  just  to  their  captors,  and  would 
throw  our  historical  perspective  out  of  focus,  to  take 
the  extreme  cases  as  types  for  the  whole. 

Yet,  put  it  mildly  as  we  can,  the  experience  per- 
sists in  being  serious.  At  Oneida  Castle  Brant,  evi- 
dently fearing  pursuit,  roused  his  party  in  the  middle 
of  the  night,  and  a  forced  march  was  begun  through 
the  heavy  timber  and  up  and  down  the  long  hills  to  the 
westward.  When  the  moon  went  down  they  halted, 
but  at  the  first  streak  of  daylight  they  pushed  on,  not 
waiting  even  to  boil  their  samp.  An  occasional  hand- 
ful of  parched  corn,  pounded  fine  and  taken  with  a 
swallow  of  water,  was  all  the  food  any  of  the  party  had 
that  day. 

The  next  encampment  was  on  the  Onondaga  River, 
south  of  the  lake ;  and  here  occurred  an  incident  as 
characteristic  of  Indian  character  as  was  the  row  of 
shoe-buckles  in  the  road.  Some  Indians  found  a 
small  cannon,  which  had  probably  been  abandoned  by 
one  of  the  detachments  sent  out  by  Sullivan  on  his 
retreat  from  the  Genesee  in  '79.  Brant,  who  had 
plenty  of  powder,  ordered  his  American  prisoners  to 
load  and  fire  this  gun  a  number  of  times,  the  Indians 


124  What  Bef  el  David  Ogden. 

meanwhile  yelling  in  delight  and  the  Tories  and  British 
enjoying  the  chagrin  of  the  helpless  Americans.  Then 
the  march  was  resumed  ;  over  the  watershed  to  Cayuga 
Lake,  which  they  crossed  on  the  ice  near  the  outlet,  a 
long  train,  each  man  far  from  his  fellow,  for  the  ice 
was  rotten  and  full  of  air-holes ;  then  along  the  old 
trail  to  Seneca  River,  which  they  forded  ;  thence .  the 
route  was  west  by  north,  one  camp  being  somewhere 
between  the  present  villages  of  Waterloo  and  Lyons. 
Brant  on  this  expedition  appears  to  have  kept  to  the 
north  of  Klanadasaga/  A  day  later  they  came  to  the 
outlet  of  Canandaigua  Lake,  where  the  Indians,  finding 
a  human  head  which  they  said  was  the  head  of  a 
Yankee,  had  an  improvised  game  of  football  with  it, 
with  taunts  and  threats  for  the  edification  of  their  pris- 
oners. The  next  day  they  crossed  the  Genesee  River, 
at  or  near  the  old  Genesee  Castle.  And  still,  as 
throughout  all  this  march,  unsalted,  often  uncooked, 
samp  was  their  only  food. 

On  the  march  Davy  and  each  of  his  fellows  had  worn 
about  their  necks  a  rope  of  some  fourteen  or  sixteen 
feet  in  length.  In  the  daytime  these  ropes  were  wound 
about  their  necks  and  tied.  At  night  they  were 
unwound,  each  prisoner  placed  between  two  captors,  and 
one  end  of  the  rope  was  fastened  to  each  of  the  double 
guard.  Under  the  circumstances  it  is  no  reflection  up- 
on our  hero's  courage  that  he  had  not  made  his  escape. 

^  Perhaps  more  correctly,  according  to  eminent  authority  (Lewis  H. 
Morgan),  "Ga-nun-da-sa-ga."  It  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
Seneca  towns,  situated  near  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Geneva.  Gen. 
Sullivan  destroyed  it  in  September,  1779,  and  no  attempt  was  ever  made  to 
rebuild  it. 


What  Befel  David  Ogden,  1 2  5 

West  of  the  Genesee,  and  beyond  the  country  which 
had  been  ravaged  by  Sullivan,  signs  of  Indian  occupancy 
multiplied ;  but  as  yet  there  was  no  other  food  than 
corn  to  be  had  for  their  ill-conditioned  bodies.  As 
they  filed  along  the  trail,  through  the  snow  and  mud 
of  March,  they  met  another  large  party  just  setting  out 
from  Niagara  on  a  foray  for  prisoners  and  scalps.  There 
were  noisy  greetings  and  many  exultant  yells ;  and  as 
the  outbound  savages  passed  the  prisoners,  they  snatched 
from  each  one's  head  the  raccoon-skin  cap ;  so  that  for 
the  rest  of  the  journey  Davy  and  his  companions  met 
the  weather  bare-headed  —  all  save  Corporal  Betts,  to 
whom  again  was  still  spared  the  old  three-cornered  hat. 
The  incident  bespeaks  either  the  lack  of  control  or  the 
negligent  good  nature  of  Brant,  for  fifteen  raccoon- 
skins  at  Fort  Niagara  would  surely  have  been  worth  at 
least  fifteen  quarts  of  rum.  Corporal  Betts,  however, 
must  have  got  little  comfort  out  of  his  hat ;  for  seeing 
him  look  so  soldierly  in  it,  the  whim  seized  upon 
Brant  to  compel  the  unlucky  corporal  to  review  his 
woebegone  troops. 

**  Drill  your  men,"  said  the  fun-loving  chief,  ''and 
let  us  see  if  these  Yankees  can  go  through  the  tactics  of 
Baron  Steuben." 

And  so  poor  Betts,  but  with  a  broken  spirit,  mustered 
his  forlorn  guard,  dressed  them  in  a  straight  line, 
and  put  them  through  the  manual  according  to  Steuben. 
I  doubt  if  the  history  of  Western  New  York  can  show 
a  stranger  military  function  than  this  reluctant  muster 
of  patriot  prisoners  under  compulsion  of  a  playful  tiger 


1 26  What  Befel  David  Ogden, 

of  an  Indian,  jeered  at  meanwhile  by  British  soldiers 
from  Fort  Niagara.  When  these  latter  went  too  far  in 
their  ridicule  Brant  stopped  them.  ^ '  The  Yankees, " 
he  said  angrily,  '*  do  it  a  damned  sight  better  than  you 
can." 

This  affair  took  place,  as  nearly  as  I  can  make  out, 
somewhere  between  Batavia  and  Lockport ;  probably 
not  far  from  the  old  Indian  village  of  Tonawanda. 

Being  now  in  the  valley  of  the  Tonawanda,  Brant 
seems  to  have  sent  ahead  a  runner  to  announce  his  ap- 
proach ;  for  the  second  or  third  day  after  crossing  the 
Genesee  they  were  met  by  a  party  from  the  fort,  bring- 
ing pork  and  flour,  whereupon  there  was  a  camp  and  a 
feast ;  with  the  not  strange  result  that  many  of  them 
had  to  return  to  the  astringent  parched  corn  as  a 
corrective. 

From  this  point  on  Davy  and  his  friends  were  sub- 
jected to  a  new  experience ;  for,  as  they  passed  through 
the  Indian  villages,  the  old  women  and  children  exer- 
cised their  accustomed  privilege  of  beating  and  abus- 
ing the  prisoners.  On  one  occasion,  as  Davy  was 
plodding  along  the  path,  a  squaw  ran  up  to  him,  and, 
all  unawares,  hit  him  a  terrific  blow  on  the  side  of  the 
head,  whereupon  the  boy  came  near  getting  into  trou- 
ble by  making  a  vigorous  effort  to  kick  the  lady.  At 
another  time,  as  David  marched  near  Brant,  he  saw  a 
young  Indian  raise  a  pole,  intending  to  give  the  pris- 
oner a  whack  over  the  head.  Davy  dodged,  and  the 
blow  fell  on  Brant's  back.  The  chief,  though  un- 
doubtedly hurt,  paid  no  attention  to  the  Indian  lad. 


What  Be/el  David  Ogden.  1 2  7 

but  advised  Davy  to  run,  and  Davy,  knowing  perfectly 
well  that  to  run  away  meant  torture  and  death,  wise- 
ly ran  towards  the  fort,  which  was  but  a  few  miles 
distant.  A  companion  named  Hawkins,  who  had 
marched  with  him,  ran  by  his  side.  And,  as  they  ran, 
they  came  upon  still  another  village  of  the  Senecas, 
from  which  two  young  savages  took  after  them.  Be- 
lieving that  their  pursuers  would  tomahawk  them, 
the  boys  let  out  a  link  or  two  of  their  speed,  and 
coming  to  a  creek  where  logs  made  a  bridge,  Hawkins 
hid  under  the  bridge,  while  Davy  ran  behind  a  great 
buttonwood  tree.  The  young  Indians,  however,  had 
seen  them,  and  on  coming  up,  one  of  them  promptly 
went  under  the  bridge,  and  the  other  around  the  tree 
for  Davy.  This  Indian  held  out  his  hand  in  friend- 
ship, and  said:  ''Brother,  stop."  And  the  boys, 
seeing  that  the  Indians  had  no  tomahawks  and  could 
do  them  no  harm,  were  reassured,  and  they  all  went  on 
together  toward  Fort  Niagara. 

Soon  they  met  a  detail  of  soldiers  from  the  fort,  who 
detained  them  until  the  rest  of  the  party  came  up, 
when  Davy  saw  that  some  of  his  friends  had  been  so 
badly  wounded  by  the  assaults  of  these  village  Indians 
that  they  were  now  being  carried.  As  the  party  went 
on  together,  the  path  was  continually  lined  with  Indians, 
whose  camps  were  on  the  open  plains  about  the  fort ; 
and  the  clubbing  and  beating  of  the  prisoners  became 
incessant.  This  was  all  a  regular  part  of  a  triumphal 
return  to  Fort  Niagara  of  a  party  of  British  and  In- 
dians with  American  prisoners,  and  was  the  mild  pre- 


1 28  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

liminary  of  that  dread  ordeal  known  as  running  the 
gauntlet. 

When  Davy,  well  to  the  front  of  the  procession,  had 
been  marched  some  distance  farther  through  the  wood, 
he  looked  out  upon  a  clearing,  across  which  ex- 
tended a  long  line  of  fallen  trees,  which  lay  piled 
with  the  butts  inward,  so  that  the  sharpened  points 
of  the  forked  branches  all  pointed  outwards,  making  a 
chevaux-de-frise  upon  which  one  might  impale  himself, 
but  which  could  scarcely  be  scaled.  Beyond  this  bar- 
rier, as  Davy  looked,  he  saw,  first,  the  wagon  road 
which  ran  between  this  chevatcx-de-frise  and  the  pali- 
sades or  pickets  of  the  fort  beyond.  Within  the 
palisades  he  could  see  the  outlines  of  the  fortification, 
the  upper  part  of  the  old  castle  which  still  stands 
there,  and  other  buildings,  and  over  all  the  red  flag  of 
Great  Britain.  But  while  he  noted  these  things,  his 
chief  regard  must  have  fallen  upon  the  great  crowd  of 
Indians  who  were  ranged  along  on  either  side  of  the 
road  between  the  outwork  of  fallen  trees  and  the  pali- 
sades—  two  close  ranks  of  painted  savages  in  front, 
and  behind  them  on  either  side  a  dense  mass  of  yell- 
ing, gesticulating  bucks,  squaws,  old  men  and  chil- 
dren, impatient  for  the  passing  of  the  prisoners.  Be- 
yond, the  British  sentries,  officers  and  other  inmates 
of  the  fort,  awaited  the  sport,  like  spectators  at  a 
play. 

Davy  knew  the  gravity  and  the  chances  of  the  situa- 
tion. He  knew  the  Indian  custom,  which  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  at  all  interfered  with  by  the  officers 


What  Be/el  David  Ogden.  1 29 

in  command  at  Niagara, '  which  allowed  the  spectator 
to  assault  or  wound  the  prisoner  who  should  run  be- 
tween the  ranks,  in  any  way  which  his  ingenuity  could 
suggest,  except  with  hatchets  and  knives ;  these  could 
be  used  only  on  prisoners  whose  faces  were  painted 
black,  by  which  sign  wretches  doomed  to  death  were 
known  ;  yet  any  prisoner,  even  the  black-painted  ones, 
who  lived  through  the  gauntlet  and  gained  the  gate  of 
the  fort,  was  safe  from  Indian  judgment,  and  could  rest 
his  case  upon  the  mercies  of  the  British. 

I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  Davy's  heart  stood 
still  for  a  second,  but  I  am  bound  to  say  there  was  not 
a  drop  of  craven  blood  in  his  veins.  He  was  not 
exactly  in  training,  as  we  would  say  of  a  sprinter  today 
—  his  diet,  the  reader  will  remember,  had  been  some- 
what deficient.  But  if  he  hesitated  or  trembled  it  was 
not  for  long.  We  can  see  him  as  he  stands  between 
the  soldiers  from  the  fort  —  bareheaded,  ragged, 
dirty ;  a  blanket  pinned  about  his  shoulders  and  still 
with  the  rope  about  his  neck  by  which  he  was  secured 
at  night.  And  now,  as  his  guards  look  back  to  see  the 
others  come  up,  Davy  tightens  the  leather  strap  at  his 
waist,  takes  a  deep  breath,  bends  low,  darts  forward, 
and  is  half  way  down  the  line  before  the  waiting 
Indians  know  he  is  coming. 

How  he  does  run  !  And  how  the  yells  and  execra- 
tions follow  !    There  is  a  flight  of  stones  and  clubs,  but 

1  Except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  Capt.  Alexander  Harper  and  his  party, 
for  whom  the  ordeal  was  made  light,  most  of  the  Indians  having  been 
enticed  away  from  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  ;  but  this  was  apparently  due  to 
Brant,  rather  than  to  the  British.— >S"^^  Ketchum's  "History  of  Buffalo," 
Vol.  I.,  pp.  374,  375. 


1 30  What  Befel  David  Ogden, 

not  one  touches  the  boy.  One  huge  savage  steps  for- 
ward, to  throw  the  runner  backward  —  he  clutches  only 
the  blanket,  which  is  left  in  his  hands,  and  Davy  runs 
freer  than  before.  The  twenty  rods  of  this  race  for  life 
are  passed,  and  as  the  boy  dashes  upon  the  bridge  by 
which  the  road  into  the  fort  crosses  the  outer  ditch,  he 
is  confronted  by  an  evil-looking  squaw,  who  aims  a  blow 
with  her  fist  square  at  his  face.  Davy  knocks  up  her  arm 
with  such  force  that  she  sprawls  heavily  to  the  ground, 
striking  her  head  on  one  of  the  great  spikes  that  held 
the  planking.  And  straight  on  runs  Davy,  not  down 
the  road  along  the  wall  to  the  place  set  for  prisoners, 
but  through  the  inner  gate,  under  the  guard-house  ;  and 
so,  panting  and  spent,  out  upon  the  old  parade-ground. 

Thus  came  the  boy-soldier  of  the  Revolution,  David 
Ogden,  to  Fort  Niagara,  118  years  ago. 

The  sentries  hailed  him  with  laughter  and  jeers,  and 
asked  him  what  he  was  doing  there.  **Go  back," 
they  said,  ^'  under  the  guard -house  and  down  the  road 
outside  the  wall,  to  the  bottom. ' ' 

This  was  where  Guy  Johnson's  house  stood,  and 
there  the  prisoners  were  to  report.  But  when  Davy 
looked  forth  he  concluded  that  discretion  was  the  better 
part  of  valor,  for  the  angry  Indians  had  closed  upon 
his  fellows  who  followed,  and  were  clubbing  them, 
knocking  them  down  and  kicking  them ;  so  that  of  the 
whole  party  taken  prisoners  near  Fort  Stanwix,  Davy 
Ogden  was  the  only  one  who  reached  Fort  Niagara 
without  serious  harm.  Turning  back  upon  the  parade 
ground  he  flatly  refused  to  go  out  again,  whereupon 


What  Be/el  David  Ogden,  1 3 1 

the  officer  of  the  guard  was  called,  who  questioned 
him,  took  pity  on  him,  and  sheltered  him  in  his  own 
quarters  for  three  days. 

Now,  if  this  were  a  mere  story,  we  would  expect, 
right  here,  a  happy  turn  in  Davy's  fortunes.  As  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  most  dismal  days  in  Davy's  life  were 
just  to  begin.  He  had  hoped  that  the  worst  would  be 
detention  at  the  fort,  and  a  speedy  shipment  down  the 
lake  to  Montreal,  for  exchange.  But  after  some  days 
he  was  summoned  to  Guy  Johnson's  house,  where  were 
many  Indians,  and  here  he  was  handed  over  to  a  squaw 
to  be  her  son,  in  place  of  one  she  had  lost  in  the  war. 
David  was  powerless  ;  and  after  what,  many  years  later, 
he  described  as  a  powwow  had  been  held  over  him,  he 
was  led  away  by  the  squaw  and  her  husband.  A  Brit- 
ish soldier,  named  Hank  Haff,  added  to  his  grief  by 
telling  him  that  he  was  adopted  by  the  Indians  and 
would  have  to  live  with  them  forever ;  and,  as  he  was 
led  off  across  the  plain,  away  from  his  friends  and  even 
from  communication  with  the  British,  who  were  at 
least  of  his  own  blood,  it  was  small  consolation  to 
know  that  his  adopted  father's  name  was  Skun-nun-do, 
that  the  hideous  old  hag,  his  mother,  was  Gunna-go- 
let,  that  there  was  a  daughter  in  the  wigwam  named 
Au-lee-zer-quot,  or  that  his  own  name  was  henceforth 
to  be  Chee-chee-le-coo,  or  ''  Chipping-bird  " — a  good 
deal,  I  submit,  for  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution  to  bear, 
even  if  he  were  only  a  boy.^ 

1  I  have  followed  the  old  narrative  in  the  spelling  of  these  Indian 
names,  which,  no  doubt,  students  of  Indian  linguistics  will  discover  are 
not  wholly  in  accord  with  the  genius  of  the  Seneca  tongue. 


132  What  Befel  David  Ogden, 

David  lived  with  this  fine  family  for  over  two  years, 
being  virtually  their  slave,  and  always  under  circum- 
stances which  made  escape  impossible.  He  dressed  in 
Indian  fashion,  and  learned  their  language,  their  yells 
and  signal  whoops.  During  the  first  months  of  his 
adoption,  their  wigwam  was  about  four  miles  from  the 
fort  —  presumably  east  or  southeast  of  it ;  and  one  of 
David's  first  duties  was  to  go  with  Gunna-go-let  out  on 
to  the  treeless  plain  overlooking  Lake  Ontario,  where 
the  old  squaw  had  found  a  prize  in  the  shape  of  a  horse 
which  had  died  of  starvation.  David  helped  her  cut 
up  the  carcass  and  *  *  tote ' '  it  home  —  and  he  was  glad 
to  eat  of  the  soup  which  she  made  of  it.  They  were 
always  hungry.  Skun-nun-do  being  a  warrior,  the  bur- 
den of  providing  for  the  family  fell  upon  Gunna-go- 
let.  Her  principal  recourse  was  to  cut  faggots  in  the 
woods  and  carry  them  to  the  fort.  Many  a  time  did 
she  and  Davy  Ogden  carry  their  loads  of  firewood 
on  their  backs  up  to  the  fort,  glad  to  receive  in 
exchange  cast-off  meat,  stale  bread  or  rum.  So  much 
of  this  work  did  Davy  do  during  the  two  years  that  he 
was  kept  with  these  Indians  that  his  back  became  sore, 
then  calloused. 

When  he  had  lived  with  Gunna-go-let  three  months, 
she  packed  up  and  moved  her  wigwam  to  the  carrying- 
place,  now  Lewiston.  Here  there  was  cleared  land, 
and  some  200  huts  or  wigwams  were  pitched,  while 
the  Indians  planted,  hoed  and  gathered  a  crop  of  corn. 
Davy  was  kept  hard  at  work  in  the  field,  or  in  carrying 
brooms,  baskets  and  other  things  to  the  fort  for  sale. 


What  Befel  David  Ogden,  133 

When  he  had  been  at  the  carrying-place  about  a 
year  and  a  half,  he  saw  a  large  party  of  captives 
brought  in  from  the  settlements.  Among  them  was 
a  young  woman  who  had  been  at  Fort  Stanwix  when 
Ogden  was  on  duty  there.  As  she  sat  in  the  camp, 
Davy  being  present,  she  began  to  observe  him  care- 
fully. Although  our  hero  was  dressed  as  an  Indian  — 
Indian  gaiters,  a  short  frock  belted  at  the  waist,  and 
with  his  hair  cut  close  to  the  scalp  over  the  whole  head 
except  a  long  tuft  on  the  crown  —  yet  this  poor  girl 
saw  his  real  condition  and  soon  learned  who  he  was. 
There  was  no  chance  for  confidences.  What  little  they 
said  had  to  be  spoken  freely,  without  feeling,  as  if 
casually  between  strangers  indifferent  to  each  other. 
She  told  David  that  she  was  gathering  cowslip  greens  in 
a  field,  when  an  Indian  rushed  upon  her  and  carried 
her  away.  What  she  endured  while  being  brought  to 
the  Niagara  I  leave  to  the  imagination.  Davy  saw 
her  carried  away  by  her  captors  across  the  river  into 
Canada;  and  thus  vanishes  Hannah  Armstrong,  for  I 
find  no  mention  of  her  except  in  this  reminiscence  of 
her  drawn  from  Ogden' s  own  lips. 

About  this  time  David  was  taken  to  the  fort,  old 
Gunna-go-let  having  heard  that  the  British  would  give 
her  a  present  for  the  lad.  Davy  trudged  the  nine  miles 
from  their  hut  to  the  fort  with  a  good  heart,  for  to  him 
the  news  meant  a  chance  of  exchange.  At  Guy  John- 
son's house  he  and  his  mother  sat  expectant  on  the 
steps.  Presently  out  came  Capt.  Powell,  who  had 
married  Jane  Moore  —  who  had  herself  been  brought 


1 34  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

to  the  fort  a  captive  from  Cherry  Valley.  This  fine 
couple,  from  whom  the  lad  had  some  right  to  expect 
kindness,  paraded  up  and  down  the  *  *  stoop ' '  or 
verandah  of  the  house  for  a  while,  the  wife  hanging  on 
her  captain's  arm  and  both  ignoring  the  boy.  At 
length  they  paused,  and  Capt.  Powell  said  : 

'  *  You  are  one  of  the  squaw  boys  ?  Do  you  want  to 
quit  the  Indians?  " 

^*  Yes,"  said  Davy,  heart  in  mouth. 

**What  for?"  quizzed  the  captain. 

^*  To  be  exchanged  —  to  get  back  home,  to  my  own 
country." 

*'Well,"  said  Powell,  ^*if  you  really  want  to  get 
free  from  the  Indians  come  up  and  enlist  in  Butler's 
Rangers.  Then  we  can  ransom  you  from  this  old 
squaw  —  will  you  do  it  ?  " 

^'No,  I  won't !  "  blazed  Davy,  fiercely. 

Capt.  Powell  turned  on  his  heel.  '*  Go  back  with 
the  Indians  again  and  be  damned  !  ' '  and  with  that  he 
vanished  into  the  house  ;  and  we  have  no  means  of 
knowing  whether  Jane,  his  wife,  had  by  this  time  be- 
come so  * '  Tory  ' '  that  she  made  no  protest ;  but  it  is 
pleasanter  to  think  of  her  as  remembering  her  own 
captivity,  and,  still  loyal  at  heart,  as  interceding  for 
the  boy.  ^     But  that  was  the  end  of  it  for  this  time,  and 

1  Ketchum  gives  Capt.  Powell  a  better  character  than  this  incident 
would  indicate;  and  says  that  he  "visited  the  prisoners  among  the 
Senecas,  at  Buffalo  Creek,  several  times  during  the  time  they  remained 
there,  not  only  to  encourage  them  by  his  counsel  and  sympathy,  but  to  ad- 
minister to  their  necessities,  and  to  procure  their  release  ;  which  was  ulti- 
mately accomplished,  mainly  through  his  efforts,  assisted  by  other  officers 
at  the  fort,  which  \_sic\  the  example  and  interest  of  Jane  Moore,  the  Cherry 
Valley  captive  had  influenced  to  cooperate  in  this  work  of  mercy."  ["  His- 
tory of  Buffalo,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  376.]  I  have  adhered  to  the  spirit  and  in  part, 
to  the  language,  of  Ogden's  own  narrative. 


What  Befel  David  Ogden.  1 3  5 

back  Davy  went,  with  an  angry  squaw,  to  continue  his 
ignoble  servitude  until  the  next  spring.  Then  word 
spread  all  through  the  region  that  the  prisoners  must  be 
brought  into  Fort  Niagara,  and  this  time  Davy  was  not 
disappointed,  for  with  many  others  he  was  hurried  on 
board  the  schooner  Seneca  and  carried  to  Oswego. 
Obviously  the  news  of  the  preparations  for  a  peace  had 
reached  Niagara.  Although  the  Treaty  of  Paris  was 
not  signed  until  September  3d  of  that  year  (1783),  yet 
the  preliminary  articles  had  been  agreed  upon  in  Jan- 
uary. The  order  from  the  British  Ministry  to  cease 
hostilities  reached  Sir  Guy  Carleton  about  the  1st  of 
April,  and  a  week  or  so  would  suffice  for  its  transmission 
to  Niagara.  Captives  who  had  been  detained  and  claimed 
by  the  Indians  continued  to  be  brought  in  during  that 
summer,  but  we  hear  no  more  of  returning  war  parties 
arriving  with  new  prisoners.  The  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion was  over,  even  at  remote  Niagara,  although  for 
one  pretext  and  another  —  and  for  some  good  reasons 
—  the  British  held  on  to  Fort  Niagara  and  kept  up  its 
garrison  for  thirteen  years  more. 

With  the  sailing  of  the  Seneca  the  connection  of 
Davy  Ogden  with  Fort  Niagara  ended  ;  but  no  one  who 
has  followed  his  fortunes  thus  far  can  wish  to  drop  him, 
as  it  were,  in  the  middle  of  Lake  Ontario.  That  is 
where  Davy  came  near  going,  for  a  gale  came  up  which 
not  only  made  him  and  the  throng  of  others  who  were 
fastened  below  decks  desperately  sick,  but  came  near 
wrecking  the  schooner.  She  was  compelled  to  put  in 
at  Buck's  Island,  and  after  some  days  reached  Oswego, 


1 36  What  Befel  David  Ogden. 

then  strongly  garrisoned.  Here  Davy  stayed,  still  a 
prisoner,  but  living  with  the  British  Indians,  through 
the  winter.  In  the  spring,  with  a  companion  named 
Danforth,  who  stole  a  loaf  of  bread  for  their  sustenance, 
he  made  his  escape.  He  ran  through  the  woods, 
twenty-four  miles  in  four  hours ;  swam  the  Oswego 
River,  and  on  reaching  the  far  side,  and  fearing  pur- 
suit, did  not  stop  to  dress,  but  ran  on  naked  through 
the  woods  until  he  and  his  companion  hoped  they  had 
distanced  their  pursuers.  A  party  had  been  sent  after 
them  from  the  fort,  but  on  reaching  the  point  where 
the  boys  had  plunged  into  the  river,  gave  up  the  chase. 
Ogden  and  Danforth  pressed  on,  around  Oneida  Lake 
—  having  an  adventure  with  a  bear  by  the  way,  and 
another  with  rattlesnakes  —  and  finally,  following  old 
trails,  reached  Fort  Herkimer,  having  finished  their 
loaf  of  bread  and  run  seventy  miles  on  the  last  day  of 
their  flight.  Here  Davy  was  among  friends.  The  offi- 
cers promptly  clothed  him,  gave  him  passports,  and  in 
a  few  days  he  found  his  parents  at  Warrensburg,  in 
Schoharie  County. 

When  the  War  of  1812  broke  out,  David  took  his  gun 
again.  He  fought  at  the  Battle  of  Queenston,  where 
forty  men  in  his  own  company  were  killed  or  wounded. 
Two  bullets  passed  through  his  clothes,  but  he  was  un- 
harmed. We  can  imagine  the  interest  with  which  he 
viewed  the  Lewiston  plateau  where  he  had  lived  with 
Gunna-go-let  more  than  thirty  years  before.  After  the 
war  he  returned  East,  and  in  1840  was  living  in  the 
town  of  Franklin,  Delaware  Co.,  being  then  seventy-six 


What  Be/el  David  Ogden.  1 3  7 

years  old.  The  story  of  his  adventures  was  gathered 
from  his  own  lips,  but  I  do  not  think  it  has  ever  been 
told  before  as  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  Niagara 
frontier. 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial 


A  FORT  NIAGARA  CENTENNIAL. 


With  Especial  Reference  to  the  British  Retefition  of  that  Post  for 
Thirteen  Years  after  the  Treaty  of  178 j.  ^ 

THE  PART  assigned  to  me  in  these  exercises  is  tQ 
review  the  history  of  Fort  Niagara ;  to  summon 
from  the  shades  and  rehabilitate  the  figures 
whose  ambitions  or  whose  patriotism  are  web  and  woof 
of  the  fabric  which  Time  has  woven  here.  It  is  a 
long  procession,  led  by  the  disciples  of  St.  Francis  and 
Loyola  —  first  the  Cross,  then  the  scalping-knife,  the 
sword  and  musket.  These  came  with  adventurers  of 
France,  under  sanction  of  Louis  the  Magnificent,  who 
first  builded  our  Fort  Niagara  and  with  varying  fortunes 
kept  here  a  feeble  footing  for  four  score  years,  until, 
one  July  day.  Great  Britain's  wave  of  continental  con- 
quest passed  up  the  Niagara ;  and  here,  as  on  all  the 
frontier  from  Duquesne  to  Quebec, 

"The  lilies  withered  where  the  Lion  trod."  - 
The   fragile  emblem   of   France  vanished  from   these 
shores,  and  the  triple  cross  waved  over  Fort  Niagara 
until,  100  years  ago  to-day,  it  gave  way  to  a  fairer 

1  Address  delivered  at  Fort  Niagara,  X.  Y.,  at  the  celebration  of  the 
centennial  of  British  evacuation,  Aug-ust  11,  1896.  Amplification  on  some 
points,  not  possible  in  the  brief  time  allotted  for  the  spoken  address  on  that 
occasion,  is  here  made  in  foot-notes. 

2  See  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes's  beautiful  poem,  "  Francis  Parkman," 
read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  in  memory  of 
the  historian,  who  died  November  8,  1893. 


142        A  Fort  Niagara  CentenniaL 

flag.  This  is  the  event  we  celebrate,  this,  with  the 
succeeding  years,  the  period  we  review :  a  period  em- 
bracing three  great  wars  between  three  great  nations ; 
covering  our  Nation's  birth,  growth,  assertion  and 
maintenance  of  independence.  The  story  of  Fort 
Niagara  is  peculiarly  the  story  of  the  fur  trade  and  the 
strife  for  commercial  monopoly  ;  and  it  is,  too,  in  con- 
siderable measure,  the  story  of  our  neighbor,  the  mag- 
nificent colony  of  Canada,  herself  worthy  of  full 
sisterhood  among  the  nations.  It  is  a  story  replete 
with  incident  of  battle  and  siege,  of  Indian  cruelty, 
of  patriot  captivity,  of  white  man's  duplicity,  of  fam- 
ine, disease  and  death, —  of  all  the  varied  forms  of 
misery  and  wretchedness  of  a  frontier  post,  which  we  in 
days  of  ease  are  wont  to  call  picturesque  and  romantic. 
It  is  a  story  without  a  dull  page,  and  it  is  two  and  a 
half  centuries  long. 

Obviously  something  must  be  here  omitted,  for  your 
committee  have  allotted  me  fifteen  minutes  in  which 
to  tell  it  ! 

Let  us  note,  then,  in  briefest  way,  the  essential  data 
of  the  spot  where  we  stand. 

A  French  exploratory  expedition  headed  by  Robert 
Cavelier,  called  La  Salle,  attempted  the  first  fortifica- 
tion here  in  1679.^     There  was  a  temporary  Indian 

1  The  first  official  step  towards  such  fortification  was  taken  by  Fron- 
tenac.     On  Nov.  14,  1674,  he  Arrote  to  the  Minister,  Colbert :     "  Sieur  Joliet 

.  .  .  has  returned  three  months  ago,  and  discovered  some  very  fine 
Countries,  and  a  navigation  so  easy  through  the  beautiful  rivers  he  has 
found,  that  a  person  can  go  from  Lake  Ontario  and  Fort  Frontenac  in  a 
bark  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  there  being  only  one  carrying  place,  half  a 
league  in  length,  where  Lake  Ontario  communicates  with  Lake  Erie.  A 
settlement  could  be  made  at  this  point  and  another  bark  built  on  Lake  Erie. 
These  are  projects  which  it  will  be  possible  to  effect  when  Peace  will  be 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial,         143 

village  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  but  no  settle- 
ment here,  neither  were  there  trees  on  this  point. 
Here,  under  the  direction  of  La  Motte  de  Lussiere, 
were  built  two  timber  redoubts,  joined  by  a  palisade. 
This  structure,  called  Fort  Conty,  burned  the  same 
year,  and  the  site  of  Fort  Niagara  was  unfortified  until 
the  summer  of  1687,  when  the  Marquis  de  Denonville, 
Governor  General  of  Canada,  after  his  expedition 
against  the  Senecas,  made  rendezvous  on  this  point, 
and  (metaphorically)  shaking  his  fist  at  his  rival  Don- 
gan,  the  Governor  of  the  English  Colony  of  New 
York,  built  here  a  fort  which  was  called  Fort  Denon- 
ville. It  was  a  timber  stockade,  of  four  bastions  ;  was 
built  in  three  days,  occupied  for  eleven  months  by  a 
garrison  which  dwindled  from  100  men  to  a  dozen,  and 
would  no  doubt  entirely  have  succumbed  to  the  scurvy 
and  the  besieging  Iroquois  but  for  the  timely  arrival 
of  friendly  Miamis.  It  was  finally  abandoned  Sep- 
tember 15,  1688,  the  palisades  being  torn  down,  but 
the  little  huts  which  had  sheltered  the  garrison  left 
standing.  How  long  they  endured  is  not  recorded. 
All  traces  of  them  had  evidently  vanished  by  1721, 
when  in  May  of  that  year  Charlevoix  rounded  yonder 
point  in  his  canoe  and  came  up  the  Niagara.  His 
Journal  gives  no  account  of  any  structure  here.  Four 
years  more  elapsed  before  the  French  ventured  to  take 


firmly  established,  and  whenever  it  will  please  the  King  to  prosecute  these 
discoveries."  [Paris  Docs.  I.,  N.  Y.  Colonial  MSS.]  Joliet,  it  must  be 
remembered,  was  never  on  the  Niagara ;  whatever  representations  he 
made  to  Frontenac  regarding  it  were  based  on  hearsay,  very  likely  on 
reports  made  to  him  by  La  Salle  at  their  meeting  in  1669  ;  so  that  priority  in 
promoting  the  Niagara  route  reverts  after  all  to  that  gallant  adventurer. 


144        ^  Fort  Niagara  Centennial. 

decided  stand  on  this  ground.  In  1725  Governor  De 
Vaudreuil  deputed  the  General  De  Longueil  to  erect  a 
fort  here.  The  work  was  entrusted  to  the  royal  en- 
gineer Chaussegros  de  Lery  —  the  elder  of  the  two 
distinguished  engineers  bearing  that  name.  He  came 
to  this  spot,  got  his  stone  from  Lewiston  Heights  and 
his  timber  from  the  forest  west  of  the  river,  and  built 
the  ' '  castle. ' '  Some  of  the  cut  stone  was  apparently 
brought  from  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Frontenac,  now 
Kingston,  across  the  lake.  The  oldest  part  of  this 
familiar  pile,  and  more  or  less  of  the  superstructure,  is 
therefore  171  years  old.'  There  is,  however,  probably 
but  little  suggestion  of  the  original  building  in  the 
present  construction,  which  has  been  several  times 
altered  and  enlarged.  But  from  1725  to  the  present 
hour  Fort  Niagara  has  existed  and,  with  one  brief  in- 
terim, has  been  continuously  and  successively  garrisoned 
by  the  troops  of  France,  England,  and  the  United  States. 
By  1727  De  Lery  had  completed  the  fortification  of 
the  '*  castle,  "  and  the  French  held  the  post  until 
1759,  when  it  surrendered  to  the  English  under  Sir 
William  Johnson.  It  was  in  its  last  defence  by  the 
French  that  the  famous  Capt.  Pouchot  first  established 
the  fortification  to  the  eastward,  with  two  bastions  and 
a  curtain-wall,  apparently  on  about  the  same  lines  as 
those  since  maintained.  The  story  of  the  siege,  the 
battle,  and  the  surrender  is  an  eventful  one ;  it  is  also 
one  of  the  most  familiar  episodes  in  the  history  of  the 
place,  and  may  not  be  dwelt  upon  here. 

J  In  i8q6. 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial,        145 

July  25,  1759,  marks  the  end  of  the  French  period 
in  the  history  of  Fort  Niagara.  The  real  significance 
of  that  period  was  even  less  in  its  military  than  in  its 
commercial  aspect.  During  the  first  century  and  more 
of  our  story  the  possession  of  the  Niagara  was  coveted 
for  the  sake  of  the  fur  trade  which  it  controlled.  I 
cannot  better  tell  the  story  of  that  hundred  years  in 
less  than  a  hundred  words,  than  to  symbolize  Fort 
Niagara  as  a  beaver  skin,  held  by  an  Indian,  a  French- 
man, an  Englishman  and  a  Dutchman,  each  of  the  last 
three  trying  to  pull  it  away  from  the  others  (the  poor 
Dutchman  being  early  bowled  over  in  the  scuffle),  and 
each  European  equally  eager  to  placate  the  Indian  with 
fine  words,  with  prayers  or  with  brandy,  or  to  stick  a 
knife  into  his  white  brother's  back. 

This  vicinity  also  has  peculiar  precedence  in  the 
religious  records  of  our  State.  It  was  near  here^  that 
Father  Melithon  Watteaux,  the  first  Catholic  priest  to 
minister  to  whites  in  what  is  now  New  York  State,  set 
up  his  altar.''  It  has  been  claimed,  too,  by  eminent 
authority,  that  on  this  bank  of  the  Niagara,  was 
acquired  by  the  Catholic  Church  its  first  title  to 
property  in  this  State^ ;  and  here  at  Fort  Niagara,  under 

J  In  the  palisaded  cabin  on  the  site  of  Lewiston. 

2  Father  Watteaux  (also  spelled  "Watteau,"  "Vatteaux,"  etc.")  was 
first  only  in  the  sense  of  being  assigned  to  a  located  mission.  "  Father 
Gabriel  [de  la  Ribourde]  was  named  Superior.  .  .  .  Father  Melithon 
was  to  remain  at  Niagara  and  make  it  his  mission."  (Le  Clercq,  Shea's 
translation,  Vol.  I.,  p.  112.)  "Father  Melithon  remained  in  the  house  at 
Niagara  with  some  laborers  and  clerks."  (//^,  p.  113.)  This  was  in  the 
summer  of  1679 ;  but  six  months  earlier  mass  had  been  celebrated  on  the 
New  York  side  of  the  Niagara  by  Father  Hennepin. 

2 This  statement,  which  I  have  elsewhere  accepted  (6"^^ "The  Cross- 
Bearers,"  p.  28  of  this  volume),  is  on  the  usually  unimpeachable  authority 
of  Dr.  John  Gilmary  Shea,  the  historian  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Amer- 


146        A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial. 

the  French  regime^  ministered  Fathers  Lamberville  and 
Milet,  Crespel  and  others  of  shining  memory.  But 
the  capture  of  Fort  Niagara  by  Sir  William  Johnson 
overthrew  the  last  altar  raised  hy  the  French  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Niagara. 

The  first  period  of  British  possession  of  this  point 
extends  from  1759  to  1796.  This  includes  the  Revo- 
lutionary period,  with  sixteen  years  before  war  was 
begun,  and  thirteen  years  after  peace  was  declared. 
When  yielded  up  by  the  French,  most  of  the  buildings 
were  of  wood.  Exceptions  were  the  castle,  the  old 
barracks  and  magazine,  the  two  latter,  probably,  dating 
from  1756,  when  the  French  engineer,  Capt.  Pouchot, 
practically  rebuilt  the  fort.  The  southwest  blockhouse 
may  also  be  of  French  construction.  A  tablet  on  the 
wall  of  yonder  bake-house  says  it  was  erected  in  1762. 
There  were  constant  repairs  and  alterations  under  the 
English,  and  several  periods  of  important  construction. 
They  rebuilt  the  bastions  and  waged  constant  warfare 
against  the  encroaching  lake.  In  1789  Capt.  Gother 
Mann,  Royal  Engineer,  made  report  on  the  needs  of 
the  place,  and  his  recommendations  were  followed  the 
succeeding  year.  In  his  report  for  1790  he  enumer- 
ates various  works  which  have  been  accomplished  on 
the  fortifications,  and  says:      '*  The  blockhouse    [has 

ica.  {See  "The  Catholic  Church  in  Colonial  Days,"  p.  322.)  I  find,  how- 
ever, on  referring  to  the  authorities  on  which  Dr.  Shea  rests  his  statement 
that  the  particular  grant  made  on  the  date  named  — May  27,  1679  — was 
not  at  Niagara  but  at  Fort  Frontenac.  (Hennepin,  "iSouvelle  D^cou- 
verte,"  p.  108.)  At  Frontenac  La  Salle  had  seigniorial  rights,  and  could 
pass  title  as  he  wished  ;  but  on  the  Niagara  he  had  no  right  to  confer 
title,  for  he  held  no  delegated  power  beyond  the  letters  patent  from  the 
King,  which  permitted  him  to  explore  and  build  forts,  under  certain 
restrictions. 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial,        147 

been]  moved  to  the  gorge  of  the  ravelin  so  as  to  form 
a  guard-house  for  the  same,  and  to  flank  the  line  of 
picketts.  ...  A  blockhouse  has  been  built  on 
the  lake  side."  This  obviously  refers  to  the  solid  old 
structure  still  standing  there.' 

The  real  life  of  the  place  during  the  pre-Revolu- 
tionary  days  can  only  be  hinted  at  here.  It  was  the 
scene  of  Sir  William  Johnson's  activities,  the  rendez- 
vous and  recruiting  post  for  Western  expeditions. 
Here  was  held  the  great  treaty  of  1764;  and  here 
England  made  that  alliance  with  the  tribes  which  turned 
their  tomahawks  against  the  '' American  rebels."  It 
may  not  be  too  much  to  say  that  the  greatest  horrors 
of  the  Revolutionary  War  had  their  source  in  this  spot. 
Without  Fort  Niagara  there  would  have  been  no  mas- 
sacre of  Wyoming/  no  Cherry  Valley  and  Bowman's 
Creek  outrages.  Here  it  was  that  the  cunning  of 
Montour  and  of  Brant  joined  with  the  zeal  of  the  But- 

1  This  would  seem  to  fix  the  date  of  the  northeast  blockhouse  at  1790  ; 
but  on  examination  of  other  sources  of  information  I  discover  strong  evi- 
dence that  the  original  construction  was  earlier.  The  Duke  de  la  Roche- 
foucault  Liancourt,  who  visited  Fort  Niagara  in  June,  1795,  wrote:  "  All 
the  buildings,  within  the  precincts  of  the  fort,  are  of  stone,  and  were  built 
by  the  French."  ("Travels,"  etc.,  London  ed.,  1793,  ^°^-  ^-^  P*  ^57-) 
This  would  make  them  antedate  July,  1759,  which  is  not  true  of  the 
bakehouse.  The  Duke  may  therefore  have  erred  regarding  other  build- 
ings, the  northeast  blockhouse  among  them ;  yet  had  it  been  but  four  or 
five  years  old,  he  would  not  be  likely  to  attribute  it  to  the  French. 
Pouchot's  plan  of  the  fort  (1739)  does  not  show  it.  I  have  seen  the  original 
sketch  of  a  plan  in  the  British  Museum,  dated  Niagara,  1773,  which  shows, 
with  several  buildings  long  since  destroyed,  two  constructions  where  the 
blockhouses  now  stand,  with  this  note:  "Two  stone  redoubts  built  in  1770 
and  1771. "  An  accompanying  sketch  of  the  southwest  redoubt  shows  a 
striking  similarity  to  the  southwest  blockhouse  as  it  now  stands,  although 
a  roadway  ran  through  it  and  a  gun  was  mounted  on  top.  These  redoubts 
may  have  been  remodeled  by  Gother  Mann. 

2  Although  I  am  aware  that  some  American  writers,  and  probably  all 
Canadian  writers  who  touch  the  subject,  are  offering  evidence  that  there 
was  no  "massacre"  at  Wyoming,  I  still  find  in  the  details  of  that  affair 
what  I  regard  as  abundant  warrant  for  the  designation  of  "massacre.'' 


148        A  Fort  Niagara  CentenniaL 

lers  and  Guy  Johnson,  and  all  were  directed  and 
sanctioned  by  the  able  and  merciless  Haldimand,  then 
Governor  General  of  Canada.  When  Sullivan,  the 
avenger,  approached  in  1779,  Fort  Niagara  trembled ; 
had  he  but  known  the  weakness  of  the  garrison  then, 
one  page  of  our  history  would  have  been  altered.  The 
British  breathed  easier  when  he  turned  back,  but  an- 
other avenger  was  in  the  camp;  for  the  5,000  inflock- 
ing  Indians  created  a  scarcity  of  provisions ;  and 
starvation,  disease  and  death,  as  had  been  the  case 
more  than  once  before  on  this  point,  became  the  real 
commanders  of  the  garrison  at  Fort  Niagara. 

I  hurry  over  the  Revolutionary  period  in  order  to 
dwell,  briefly,  on  the  time  following  the  treaty  of  1783. 
By  that  treaty  Great  Britain  acknowledged  the  inde- 
pendence of  this  country.  When  it  was  signed  the 
British  held  the  posts  of  Point  au  Fer  and  Dutchmen's 
Point  on  Lake  Champlain,  Oswegatchie  on  the  St. 
Lawrence,  Oswego,  Niagara,  Detroit  and  Mackinac. 
The  last  three  were  important  depots  for  the  fur  trade 
and  were  remote  from  the  settled  sections  of  the 
country.  The  British  alleged  that  they  held  on  to 
these  posts  because  of  the  non-fulfillment  of  certain 
clauses  in  the  treaty  by  the  American  Government. 
But  Congress  was  impotent ;  it  could  only  recommend 
action  on  the  part  of  the  States,  and  the  impoverished 
States  were  at  loggerheads  with  each  other.  England 
waited  to  see  the  new  Nation  succumb  to  its  own  do- 
mestic difficulties.  It  is  exceedingly  interesting  to 
note  at  this  juncture  the  attitude  of  Gov.  Haldimand. 


A  Fori  Niagara  Centen?izaL        149 

In  November,  1784,  more  than  a  year  after  the  signing 
of  the  treaty,  he  wrote  to  Brig. -Gen.  St.  Leger : 
**  Different  attempts  having  been  made  by  the  Ameri- 
can States  to  get  possession  of  the  posts  in  the  Upper 
Country,  I  have  thought  it  my  duty  uniformly  to  op- 
pose the  same  until  His  Majesty's  orders  for  that  pur- 
pose shall  be  received,  and  my  conduct  upon  that 
occasion  having  been  approved,  as  you  will  see  by  en- 
closed extract  of  a  letter  from  His  Majesty's  Minister 
of  State,  I  have  only  to  recommend  to  you  a  strict 
attention  to  the  same,  which  will  be  more  than  ever 
necessary  as  uncommon  returns  of  furs  from  the  Upper 
Country  this  year  have  increased  the  anxiety  of  the 
Americans  to  become  masters  of  it,  and  have  prompted 
them  to  make  sacrifices  to  the  Indians  for  that  pur- 
pose"; and  he  adds,  after  more  in  this  vein,  that 
should  evacuation  be  ordered,  *  *  on  no  account  what- 
ever are  any  stores  or  provisions  to  be  left  in  the  forts' ' 
for  the  use  of  the  Americans. 

Not  only  did  Haldimand,  during  the  years  imme- 
diately following  the  treaty,  refuse  to  consider  any 
overtures  made  by  the  Americans  looking  to  a  transfer 
of  the  posts,  but  he  was  especially  solicitous  in  main- 
taining the  garrisons,  keeping  them  provisioned,  and 
the  fortifications  in  good  repair.  There  were  over 
2,000,  troops.  Loyalists  and  Indians,  at  Fort  Niagara, 
October  1,  1783.  A  year  later  it  was  much  the  best- 
equipped  post  west  of  Montreal ;  and  ten  years  later  it 
was  not  only  well  garrisoned  and  armed,  mounting  twelve 
24-pounders,  ten  12-pounders,  two  howitzers  and  five 


1 50        A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial, 

mortars,  with  large  store  of  shell  and  powder,  but  it  had 
become  such  an  important  depot  of  supply  to  the  im- 
poverished Loyalists  that  a  great  scandal  had  arisen 
over  the  matter  of  feeding  them  with  King's  stores ;  and 
the  last  spring  of  the  Britishers'  sojourn  here  was 
enlivened  by  the  proceedings  of  a  court  of  inquiry, 
with  a  possible  court-martial  in  prospect,  over  a  whole- 
sale embezzlement  of  the  King's  flour. 

Haldimand  prized  Niagara  at  its  true  value.  In 
October,  1782,  several  months  before  peace  was  de- 
clared, with  admirable  forethought  and  diplomacy,  he 
wrote  to  the  Minister:  *' In  case  a  peace  or  truce 
should  take  place  during  the  winter  .  .  .  great 
care  should  be  taken  that  Niagara  and  Oswego  should 
be  annexed  to  Canada,  or  comprehended  in  the  gene- 
ral words,  that  each  of  the  contending  parties  in 
North  America  should  retain  what  they  possessed  at 
the  time.  The  possession  of  these  two  forts  is  essen- 
tially necessary  to  the  security  as  well  as  trade  of  the 
country. ' '  ^  He  ordered  the  commandant  at  Fort  Niagara 
to  be  very  much  on  his  guard  against  surprise  by  the  wily 
Americans,  and  at  the  same  time  to  ^*  be  very  industri- 
ous in  giving  every  satisfaction  to  our  Indian  allies.'"* 

'  Haldimand  to  T.  Townshend,  October  25,  1782. 

2  Haldimand  to  Lord  North,  June  2,  17S2.  In  the  same  letter  he  wrote 
"  I  have  lately  received  a  letter  from  Brig.-Gen.  Maclean  who  commands 
at  Niagara.  .  .  .  Affairs  with  the  Indians  are  in  a  very  critical  state 
I  have  ordered  and  insisted  upon  Sir  John  Johnson's  immediate  departure 
for  Niagara  in  hopes  that  his  influence  may  be  of  use  in  preventing  the 
bad  consequences  which  may  be  apprehended.  I  have  been  assured  by 
the  officers  who  brought  me  the  accounts  of  the  cessation  of  arms,  via 
New  York,  that  Gen.  Schuyler  and  the  American  officers  made  no  secret 
of  their  hostile  intentions  against  the  Indians  and  such  Royalists  as  had 
served  amongst  them.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  American  Congress  will 
adopt  a  line  of  conduct  more  consonant  to  humanity  as  well  as  Policy." 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial.        1 5 1 

On  the  2d  of  May,  1783,  an  express  messenger  from 
Gen.  Washington  arrived  at  Fort  Niagara,  bringing  the 
•erms  of  the  treaty.  The  news  gave  great  uneasiness 
to  Indian-Supt.  Butler.  "-  Strict  attention  to  the  In- 
dians, "  he  wrote  next  day  to  Capt.  Mathews,  *' has 
hitherto  kept  them  in  good  humor,  but  now  I  am  fear- 
ful of  a  sudden  and  disagreeable  change  in  their  con- 
duct. The  Indians,  finding  that  their  lands  are  ceded 
to  the  Americans,  will  greatly  sour  their  tempers  and 
make  them  very  troublesome.  "  The  British,  with 
good  reason,  were  constantly  considering  the  effect  of 
evacuation  upon  the  Indians. 

The  Americans  made  an  ineffectual  effort  to  get 
early  possession  of  the  posts.  New  York  State  made  a 
proposition  for  garrisoning  Oswego  and  Niagara,  but 
Congress  did  not  accede.  On  January  21,  1784,  Gov. 
Clinton  advised  the  New  York  State  Senate  and  Assem- 
bly on  the  subject.  The  British  commander  [Haldi- 
mand] ,  he  said,  had  treated  the  Provisional  Articles  as 
a  suspension  of  hostilities  only,  "  declined  to  with- 
draw his  garrison  and  refused  us  even  to  visit  those 
posts."'     The  Legislature  agreed  with  the  Governor 

1  The  full  story  of  the  efforts  of  the  United  States  Government  to  obtain 
possession  of  Fort  Niagara  and  the  other  posts  on  the  northern  frontier 
would  make  a  long  chapter.  I  have  barely  touched  a  few  features  of  it. 
One  episode  was  the  mission  of  the  Baron  Steuben  to  Haldimand,  to  claim 
the  delivery  of  the  posts.  Washington  selected  Steuben  because  of  his 
appreciation  of  that  general's  tact  and  soundness  of  judgment  in  military 
matters.  The  President's  instructions  under  date  of  July  12,  1783,  were 
characteristically  precise  and  judicious.  Steuben  was  to  procure  from 
General  Haldimand,  if  possible,  immediate  cession  of  the  posts  ;  failing  in 
that,  he  was  to  get  a  pledge  of  an  early  cession  ;  "but  if  this  cannot  be 
done,"  wrote  Washington,"' you  will  endeavor  to  procure  from  him  posi- 
tive and  definite  assurances,  that  he  will  as  soon  as  possible  give  informa- 
tion of  the  time  that  shall  be  fixed  on  for  the  evacuation  of  these  posts,  and 
that  the  troops  of  his  Britannic  Majesty  shall  not  be  drawn  therefrom  until 
sufficient  previous  notice  shall  be  given  of  that  event ;  that  the  troops  of 


152        A  Fort  Niagara  Centesimal . 

that  nothing  could  be  done  until  spring. '  Spring  found 
them  equally  impotent.  In  March  Gov.  Clinton  sent 
a  copy  of  the  proclamation  announcing  the  ratification 
of  the  treaty  to  Gen.  Haldimand:  '*  Having  no  doubt 
that  Your  Excellency  will,  as  soon  as  the  season  admits, 
withdraw  the  British  garrisons  under  your  command 
from  the  places  they  now  hold  in  the  United  States, 
agreeable  to  the  7th  Article  of  the  Treaty,  it  becomes  a 


the  United  States  may  be  ready  to  occupy  the  fortresses  as  soon  as  they 
shall  be  abandoned  by  those  of  his  Britannic  Majesty."  An  exchange  of 
artillery  and  stores  was  also  to  be  proposed.  Having  made  these  arrange- 
ments with  Haldimand,  Steuben  was  to  go  to  Oswego,  thence  to  Niagara, 
and  after  viewing  the  situation,  and  noting  the  strength  and  all  the  military 
and  strategic  conditions,  was  to  pass  on  to  Detroit.  Armed  with  these  instruc- 
tions from  the  Commander-in-Chief,  Steuben  went  to  Canada,  and  on  the 
8th  of  August  met  Gen.  Haldimand  at  Sorel.  For  once,  the  man  who  had 
disciplined  the  American  Army  met  his  match.  His  report  to  Washington 
indicates  an  uncommonly  positive  reception. 

"To  the  first  proposition  which  I  had  in  charge  to  make,"  he  wrote  to 
Washington,  Aug.  23,  1783  ["  Correspondence  of  the  Revolution,'"  IV., 
41,  42],  "Gen.  Haldimand  replied  that  he  had  not  received  any  orders  for 
making  the  least  arrangement  for  the  evacuation  of  a  single  post ;  that  he 
had  only  received  orders  to  cease  hostilities ;  those  he  had  strictly  com- 
plied with,  not  only  by  restraining  the  British  troops,  but  also  the  savages, 
from  committing  the  least  hostile  act ;  but  that,  until  he  should  receive 

fositive  orders  for  that  purpose,  he  would  not  evacuate  an  inch  of  ground, 
informed  him  that  I  was  not  instructed  to  insist  on  an  immediate  evacua- 
tion of  the  posts  in  question,  but  that  I  was  ordered  to  demand  a  safe  con- 
duct to,  and  a  liberty  of  visiting  the  posts  on  our  frontiers,  and  now 
occupied  by  the  British,  that  I  might  judge  of  the  arrangements  necessary 
to  be  made  for  securing  the  interests  of  the  United  States.  To  this  he 
answered  that  the  precaution  was  premature  ;  that  the  peace  was  not  yet 
sig^ned  ;  that  he  was  only  authorized  to  cease  hostilities ;  and  that,  in  this 
point  of  view,  he  could  not  permit  that  I  should  visit  a  single  post  occupied 
by  the  British.  Neither  would  he  agree  that  any  kind  of  negotiation 
should  take  place  between  the  United  States  and  the  Indians,  if  in  his 
power  to  prevent  it,  and  that  the  door  of  communication  should,  on  his 

Sart,  be  shut,  until  he  received  positive  orders  from  his  court  to  open  it, 
ly  last  proposal  was  that  he  should  enter  into  an  agreement  to  advise 
Congress  of  the  evacuation  of  the  posts,  three  months  previous  to  their 
abandonment.  This,  for  the  reason  before  mentioned,  he  refused,  declaring 
that  until  the  definite  treaty  should  be  signed,  he  would  not  enter  into 
any  kind  of  agreement  or  negotiation  whatever." 

1  The  inability  of  the  New  York  State  Government  to  accomplish  any- 
thing in  the  matter  at  this  time  is  illustrated  by  the  following  extract  from 
Gov.  Clinton's  speech  to  the  Senate  and  Assembly,  January  21,  1784 :  "  You 
will  perceive  from  the  communication  which  relates  to  the  subject  that  I 
have  not  been  inattentive  to  the  circumstances  of  the  western  posts  within 
this  State.  They  are  undoubtedly  of  great  importance  for  the  protection 
of  our  trade  and  ".frontier  settlements,  and  it  was  with  concern  I  learnt 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial.        153 

part  of  my  duty  to  make  the  necessary  provisions  for 
receiving  the  Post  of  Niagara  and  the  other  posts 
within  the  limits  of  this  State,  and  it  is  for  this  purpose 
I  have  now  to  request  that  Your  Excellency  would 
give  me  every  possible  information  of  the  time  when 
these  posts  are  to  be  delivered  up. ' ' 

Lieut. -Col.  Fish,  who  carried  Gov.  Clinton's  letter 
to  Quebec,  received  no  satisfaction.  Gen.  Haldimand 
evaded  anything  like  a  direct  reply,  saying  that  he 
would  obey  the  instructions  of  His  Majesty's  Minis- 
ters —  whom  he  was  meanwhile  urging  to  hold  on  to 
the  posts  —  but  he  gave  the  American  officer  the  gratu- 
itous information  that  in  his  [Haldimand' s]  private 
opinion  *'  the  posts  should  not  be  evacuated  until  such 
time  as  the  American  States  should  carry  into  execu- 
tion the  articles  of  the  treaty  in  favor  of  the  Loyalists  ; 
that  in  conformity  to  that  article  [I  quote  from  Haldi- 
mand's  report  of  the  interview  to  Lord  North],  I  had 
given  liberty  to  many  of  the  unhappy  people  to  go 
into  the  States  in  order  to  solicit  the  recovery  of  their 

that  the  propositions  made  by  the  State  for  governing  those  posts  were 
not  acceded  to  by  Congress.  It  affords  me,  however,  some  satisfaction 
to  find  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  was  in  pursuit  of  measures  for  that 
purpose,  but  my  expostulations  proved  fruitless.  The  British  commander 
in  that  Department  treating  the  Provisional  Articles  as  a  suspension  of 
hostilities  only,  declined  to  withdraw  his  garrisons  and  refused  us  even 
to  visit  these  posts.  It  is  necessary  for  me  to  add  that  it  will  now  be  im- 
practicable to  take  possession  of  them  until  spring,  and  that  I  have  no 
reason  to  believe  that  Congress  have,  or  are  likely  to  make  any  provision 
for  the  expense  which  will  necessarily  occur,  it  therefore  remains  for  you 
to  take  this  interesting  subject  into  your  further  consideration." 

To  this  the  Senate  made  answer  :  "  The  circumstances  of  our  western 
posts  excite  our  anxiety.  We  shall  make  no  comment  on  the  conduct  of 
the  British  officer  in  Canada  as  explained  by  your  Excellency's  com- 
munication. It  would  be  in  vain.  Convinced  that  our  frontier  settlements, 
slowly  emerging  from  the  utter  ruin  with  which  they  were  so  lately  over- 
whelmed, and  our  fur  trade  which  constitutes  a  valuable  branch  in  our 
remittances,  will  be  protected  by  these  posts,  we  shall  adopt  the  best 
measures  in  our  power  for  their  reestablishment." 


154        ^  Fort  Niagara  Centennial. 

estates  and  effects,  but  that  they  were  glad  to  return, 
without  effecting  anything  after  having  been  insulted 
in  the  grossest  manner ;  that  although  in  compliance 
with  His  Majesty's  order,  and  [to]  shun  everything 
which  might  tend  to  prevent  a  reconciliation  between 
the  two  countries,  I  had  make  no  public  representation 
on  that  head.  I  could  not  be  insensible  to  the  suffer- 
ings of  those  who  had  a  right  to  look  up  to  me  for  pro- 
tection, and  that  such  conduct  towards  the  Loyalists 
was  not  a  likely  means  to  engage  Great  Britain  to 
evacuate  the  posts ;  for  in  all  my  transactions,  ' '  he 
adds,  *^I  never  used  the  words  either  of  my  deliver- 
ing '  or  their  ^  receiving '  the  posts,  for  reasons  men- 
tioned in  one  of  my  former  letters  to  Your  Lordship.  ' ' 
And  with  this  poor  satisfaction  Col.  Fish  was  sent  back 
to  Gov.  Clinton.^ 

In  June,  Maj.-Gen.  Knox,  Secretary  of  War,  sent 
Lieut. -Col.  Hull  to  Quebec  on  the  same  errand.  In  a 
most  courteous  letter  he  asked  to  be  notified  of  the 
time  of  evacution,  and  proposed,  **as  a  matter  of  mu- 
tual convenience,  an  exchange  of  certain  cannon  and 
stores  now  at  these  posts  for  others  to  be  delivered  at 
West  Point  upon  Hudson's  River,  New  York,  or  some 
other  convenient  place,  "  and  he  added  that  Lieut. - 
Col.  Hull  was  fully  authorized  to  make  final  arrange- 
ments, ^'so  that  there  may  remain  no  impediment  to 
the  march  of  the  American  troops  destined  for  this  ser- 

i"Lt.-Col.  Fish,"  the  Governor  General's  report  continues,  "gave  me 
the  strongest  assurances  that  the  proceedings  against  the  Loyalists  were 
disapproved  by  the  leading  men  in  the  different  States,  and  gave  me  a 
recent  instance  of  Gov.  Clinton  having  [?  saving]  Capt.  Moore  [?]  of  the 
53d  Regiment  from  the  insolence  of  the  mob  in  New  York.  " 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial,        155 

vice."  Holdfast  Haldimand  sent  him  back  with  no 
satisfaction  whatever,  and  again  exulted,  in  his  report 
to  Lord  Sydney,  over  his  success  in  withstanding  the 
Americans.'  It  was  with  great  reluctance  that  in  the 
summer  of  1784  he  reduced  the  number  of  British  ves- 
sels by  one  on  each  of  the  lakes  Erie  and  Ontario. 
"  It  appears  to  be  an  object  of  National  advantage,"  he 
wrote  to  an  ofificial  of  the  British  Treasury,  **to  pre- 
vent the  fur  trade  from  being  diverted  to  the  Ameri- 
can States,  and  no  measure  is  so  likely  to  have  effect  as 
the  disallowing,  as  long  as  it  shall  be  in  our  power,  the 
navigation  of  the  lakes  by  vessels  or  small  crafts  of  any 
kind  belonging  to  individuals ;  hence  I  was  the  more 
inclined  to  indulge  the  merchants,  though  in  opposition 
to  the  plan  of  economy  which  I  had  laid  down."^ 

In  October,  1784,  Congress  ordered  700  men  to  be 
raised  for  garrisoning  the  posts;  but  the  season  was 
late,  the  States  impotent  or  indifferent,  and  nothing 
came  of  the  order.  Congress  faithfully  exercised  all 
the  power  it  possessed  in  the  matter.  In  1783,  and 
again  in  1787,  it  unanimously  recommended  to  the 
States  (and  the  British  commissioner  was  aware,  when 
the  treaty  was  made,  that  Congress  could  do  no  more 
than  recommend)  to  comply  speedily  and  exactly  with 


1 "  Lt.-Col.  Hull  in  the  American  service,  arrived  here  on  the  loth  inst. 
with  a  letter  from  Major  Gen.  Knox,  dated  New  York  the  13th  June.  .  . 
I  did  not  think  myself,  from  the  tenor  of  Yr  Lordship's  letter  of  the  8th  of 
April,  authorized  to  give  publicly,  any  reason  for  delaying  the  evacuation 
of^the  Posts,  tho'  perhaps  it  might  have  had  some  effect  in  quickening  the 
efforts  of  Congress  to  produce  the  execution  of  the  Article  of  the  Difinitive 
Treaty  in  favor  of  the  Royalists,  tho'  I  held  the  same  private  conversation 
to  Lt.-Col.  Hull  as  I  had  to  Lt.-Col.  Fish."  —Haldimand  to  Lord  Sydney 
Quebec,  July  16,  1784. 

2  Haldimand  to  Thos.  Steile,  Esq.,  of  the  Treasury  ;  Quebec,  Sept.  i,  1784. 


156        A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial. 

that  portion  of  the  treaty  that  concerned  creditors  and 
Royalists.  The  States  were  unable  to  act  in  concert, 
and  alleged  infractions  of  the  compact  by  the  British, 
as,  indeed,  there  were.  There  was  a  sporadic  show  of 
indignation  in  various  quarters  over  the  continued 
retention  of  the  posts ;  but  in  view  of  more  vital 
matters,  and  consciousness  that  the  British  claim  of 
unfulfilled  conditions  was  not  wholly  unfounded,  the 
agitation  slumbered  for  long  periods,  and  matters  re- 
mained in  statu  quo. 

The  establishment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in 
1789  gave  the  States  a  new  and  firmer  union ;  and  the 
success  of  Wayne's  expedition  materially  loosened  the 
British  hold  on  the  Indians  and  the  trade  of  the  lake 
region ;  so  that  Great  Britain  readily  agreed  to  the 
express  stipulation  in  the  commercial  treaty  of  1794, 
that  the  posts  should  be  evacuated  *  *  on  or  before  the 
1st  of  June,  1796."  This  treaty,  commonly  called 
Jay's,  was  signed  in  London,  November  19,  1794,  but 
not  ratified  until  October  28,  1795.  No  transfer  of 
troops  was  then  reasonably  to  be  expected  during  the 
winter.  Indeed,  it  was  not  until  April  25,  1796,  that 
Lord  Dorchester  officially  informed  his  council  at 
Castle  St.  Louis  that  he  had  received  a  copy  of  the 
treaty.  Even  then  the  transfer  was  postponed  until 
assurances  could  be  had  that  English  traders  among  the 
Indians  should  not  be  unduly  dealt  with.^     There  was 

1  At  the  risk  of  overloading  my  pages  with  citations  from  this  old  corre- 
spondence, I  venture  to  give  the  following  letter  from  Lord  Dorchester  to 
Lt.-Gov.  Simcoe,  so  admirably  does  it  illustrate  the  British  apprehensions 
at  the  time.    It  is  dated  Quebec,  Apr.  3,  1796  : 

"Circumstances  have  arisen,  which  will  probably,  for  a  time,  delay  the 
evacuation  of  the  Upper  Posts,  among  which  some  relating  to  the  interests 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial.         1 5  7 

much  highly-interesting  correspondence  between  Lord 
Dorchester  and  the  commandant  at  Niagara  on  this 
point ;  with  James  McHenry,  our  Secretary  of  War ; 
with  Robert  Liston,  the  British  Minister  at  Philadel- 
phia ;  and,  of  course,  with  the  Duke  of  Portland  and 
others  of  the  Ministry.  Capt.  Lewis,  representing  the 
United  States,  was  sent  to  Quebec  for  definite  infor- 
mation of  British  intention.  He  fared  better  than  the 
American  emissaries  had  twelve  years  before.  He  was 
cordially  received  and  supplied  with  a  copy  of  the 
official  order  commanding  evacuation  of  the  posts. 
Whereupon,  having  received  the  assurance  which  his 
Government  had  so  long  sought,  he  immediately  re- 
quested that  the  posts  should  not  be  evacuated  until  the 
troops  of  the  United  States  should  be  at  hand  to  pro- 


of the  Indians  do  not  appear  the  least  important.  By  the  8th  article  of  the 
treaty  entered  into  the  3d  August  last,  between  Mr.  Wayne  and  them, 
it  is  stipulated  that  no  person  shall  be  allowed  to  reside  among  or  to  trade 
with  these  Indian  tribes,  unless  they  be  furnished  with  a  license  from  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  and  that  every  person  so  trading  shall 
be  delivered  up  by  the  Indians  to  an  American  Superintendent,  to  be  dealt 
with  according  to  law,  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  third  article  of  the 
Treaty  of  Amity,  Commerce  and  Navigation,  previously  concluded  be- 
tween His  Majesty  and  the  United  States  by  which  it  is  agreed  that  'it 
shall  at  all  times  be  free  to  His  Majesty's  subjects  and  to  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  and  also  to  the  Indians,  dwelling  on  either  side  of  the  Boun- 
dary Line,  freely  io  pass  and  repass^  by  land  or  inland  navigation,  into  the 
respective  territories  and  countries  of  the  two  parties  on  the  Continent  of 
America  (the  country  within  the  limits  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Co.  only  except- 
ed), and  to  navigate  the  lakes,  rivers  and  waters  thereof,  and  freely  to 
carry  on  trade  and  commerce  with  each  other.'' 

"  Previously  therefore  to  the  actual  execution  of  the  treaty  on  our  part, 
it  is  requisite  that  we  should  be  convinced  that  the  stipulations  entered  into 
by  the  United  States  will  also  be  fulfilled  by  them  ;  and  on  a  point  so 
interesting  to  His  Majesty's  subjects  and  more  especially  to  the  Indians, 
it  is  indispensably  necessary  that  all  doubts  and  misconceptions  should 
be  removed.  His  Majesty's  Minister  at  Philadelphia  is  accordingly  in- 
structed to  require  an  explanation  on  this  subject.  Till  therefore  the  same 
shall  be  satisfactorily  terminated  I  shall  delay  the  surrender  of  the  Posts. 
These  matters  you  will  be  pleased  to  explain  to  the  Indians,  pointing  out  to 
them  at  the  same  time  the  benevolent  care  and  regard  always  manifested 
towards  them  by  the  King  their  Father,  and  particularly  the  attention  that 
has  been  shown  to  their  interests  on  the  present  occasion." 


158        A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial, 

tect  the  works  and  public  buildings.  ''Being  desir- 
ous," wrote  Lord  Dorchester,  '' to  meet  the  wishes  of 
the  President,  I  have  qualified  my  orders  in  a  manner 
that  I  think  will  answer  this  purpose."^  Thus  it  hap- 
pened that  the  evacuation  occurred  at  several  different 
dates.  It  not  being  thought  necessary  to  await  the 
coming  of  American  forces  at  the  small  posts  on  Lake 
Champlain  and  at  Oswegatchie,  the  British  withdrew 
from  those  points  without  ceremony  about  July  1st. 
Detroit  followed,  July  11th ;  then  Oswego,  July  15th. 
Most  of  the  garrison  appears  to  have  left  Fort  Niagara 
early  in  July,  but  an  officer's  guard  remained  until 
August  llth,^  when  American  troops  arrived  from 
Oswego,  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes  went  to  the  mast- 
head. 

I  have  dwelt  upon  this  period  in  the  history  of  Fort 
Niagara  at  some  length,  partly  because  it  is  the  exact 
period  marked  by  our  celebration  today,  partly  because 
most  of  the  data  just  related  are  gleaned  from  unpub- 
lished official  MSS.,  of  which  but  scant  use  appears 
to  have  been  made  by  writers  on  the  subject. 

1  Dorchester  to  Robert  Liston  (British  Minister  at  Philadelphia),  June 
6,  1796. 

2  Under  date  of  Niagara,  August  6,  1796,  Peter  Russell  wrote  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland  :  "  All  the  posts  we  held  on  the  American  side  of  the 
line  in  the  vicinity  of  this  province,  are  given  up  to  the  United  States 
agreeable  to  the  treaty,  excepting  that  of  Niagara,  which  remains  occupied 
by  a  small  detachment  from  the  5th  Regiment,  until  the  garrison  they  have 
ordered  thither  may  arrive  from  Oswego.  And  I  understand  that  they 
have  not  yet  taken  possession  of  Michillimackinac  from  the  want  of  pro- 
visions. I  have  directed  the  officers  commanding  his  Majesty's  troops  in 
this  Province  to  make  me  a  return  of  the  effective  number  that  may  remain 
after  the  departure  of  the  5th  and  24th  Regiments,  and  of  their  distribu- 
tion." On  August  20th  he  wrote  :  "  The  Fort  of  Niagara  was  delivered 
up  to  a  detachment  of  troops  belonging  to  the  United  States  of  America 
on  the  nth  inst.  and  the  guard  left  in  it  by  the  5th  Regiment  has  sailed  for 
Lower  Canada."  Mackinac,  the  last  of  the  posts  to  be  surrendered, 
did  not  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  Americans  until  the  following  October 


A  Fort  Niagara  Centennial,        159 

Of  Fort  Niagara  under  the  American  flag  I  shall  be 
very  brief.  No  loyal  American  can  take  pride  in  tell- 
ing of  its  surrender  to  the  British,  December  19,  1813. 
There  was  neither  a  gallant  defense  nor  a  generous 
enemy.  Cowardice  on  the  one  hand  and  retaliation 
on  the  other  sum  up  the  episode.  The  place  was 
restored  to  the  United  States  March  27,  1815,  and  with 
the  exception  of  one  brief  interim  has  been  maintained 
as  a  garrison  to  this  day.  The  Morgan  affair  of  1826 
need  only  be  alluded  to.  The  last  defensive  work  of 
consequence  —  the  brick  facing  of  the  bastions,  front- 
ing east  —  dates  from  1861. 

In  the  continental  view.  Fort  Niagara  was  never  of 
paramount  importance.  Before  the  British  conquest, 
Niagara  was  the  key  to  the  inner  door,  but  Quebec  was 
the  master-lock.  The  French  Niagara  need  never 
have  been  attacked ;  after  the  fall  of  Quebec  it  would 
inevitably  have  become  Great  Britain's  without  a  blow. 
In  English  hands  its  importance  was  great,  its  expense 
enormous.  Without  it,  Detroit  and  Mackinac  could 
not  have  existed ;  yet  England's  struggle  with  the 
rebellious  colonies  would  have  been  inevitable,  and 
would  have  terminated  exactly  as  it  did,  had  she  never 
possessed  a  post  in  the  lake  region.  And  of  Fort  Ni- 
agara as  an  American  possession,  the  American  historian 
can  say  nothing  more  true  than  this :  that  it  is  a  strik- 
ing exemplification  of  the  fact  that  his  beloved  country 
is  ill  prepared  upon  her  frontiers  for  anything  save  a 
state  of  international  amity  and  undisturbed  peace. 


The  Journals  and  Journeys  of  an 
Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 


THE  JOURNALS  AND  JOURNEYS  OF 
AN  EARLY  BUFFALO  MERCHANT. 


ON  THE  frosty  morning  of  February  5,  1822,  a 
strange  equipage  turned  out  of  Erie  Street  into 
Willink  Avenue,  Buffalo,  drove  down  that 
steep  and  ungraded  highway  for  a  short  distance,  then 
crossed  to  Onondaga  Street,  and  turning  into  Crow, 
was  soon  lost  to  sight  among  the  snowdrifts  that  lined 
the  road  running  round  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Erie. 
At  least,  such  I  take  to  have  been  the  route,  through 
streets  now  familiar  as  Main,  Washington  and  Ex- 
change, which  a  traveler  would  choose  who  was  bound 
up  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Erie. 

The  equipage,  as  I  have  said,  was  a  strange  one,  and 
a  good  many  people  came  out  to  see  it ;  not  so  much 
to  look  at  the  vehicle  as  to  bid  good-bye  to  its  solitary 
passenger.  The  conveyance  itself  was  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  a  good-sized  crockery-crate,  set  upon 
runners.  Thills  were  attached,  in  which  was  harnessed 
a  well-conditioned  horse.  The  baggage,  snugly 
stowed,  included  a  saddle  and  saddle-bags,  and  a  sack 
of  oats  for  the  horse.  Sitting  among  his  effects,  the 
passenger,  though  raised  but  a  few  inches  above  the 
snow,  looked  snug  and  comfortable.  With  a  chorus 
of  well-wishes  following  him,  he  left  the  village  and 


164       An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

by  nightfall  had  traveled  many  miles  to  the  west- 
ward, taking  his  course  on  the  ice  that  covered  Lake 
Erie. 

This  was  John  Lay,  a  merchant  of  the  early  Buffalo, 
whom  even  yet  it  is  only  necessary  to  introduce  to  the 
young  people  and  to  new-comers.  The  older  genera- 
tion remembers  well  the  enterprising  and  successful 
merchant  who  shared  fortunes  with  Buffalo  in  her  most 
romantic  days.  Before  going  after  him,  up  the  ice- 
covered  lake,  let  us  make  his  closer  acquaintance. 

Mr.  Lay,  who  was  of  good  New-England  stock, 
came  to  Buffalo  in  1810  to  clerk  in  the  general  store  ot 
his  brother-in-law,  Eli  Hart.  Mr.  Hart  had  built  his 
store  on  Main  near  the  corner  of  Erie  Street,  the  site 
now  occupied  by  the  American  Express  Co.'s  building. 
His  dwelling  was  on  Erie  Street,  adjoining,  and 
between  the  house  and  store  was  an  ample  garden. 
The  space  now  occupied  by  St.  Paul's  Church  and  the 
Erie  County  Savings  Bank  was  a  rough  common ; 
native  timber  still  stood  thick  along  the  east  side  of 
Main,  above  South  Division  Street ;  the  town  had  been 
laid  out  in  streets  and  lots  for  four  years,  and  the 
population,  exceeding  at  that  time  400,  was  rapidly 
increasing.  There  was  a  turnpike  road  to  the  east- 
ward, with  a  stage  route.  Buffalo  Creek  flowed  lazily 
into  the  lake ;  no  harbor  had  been  begun ;  and  on 
quiet  days  in  summer  the  bees  could  still  be  heard 
humming  among  the  basswoods  by  its  waters. 

This  was  the  Buffalo  to  which  young  Lay  had  come. 
Looking  back  to  those  times,  even  more  novel  than 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        165 

the  condition  of  the  frontier  village,  was  the  character 
of  the  frontier  trade  carried  on  by  Mr.  Hart.  The 
trade  of  the  villagers  was  less  important  than  that 
which  was  held  with  the  Canadians  or  English  who 
were  in  office  under  the  Government.  To  them  they 
sold  India  goods,  silks  and  muslins.  Side  by  side  with 
these  the  shelves  were  stocked  with  hardware,  crock- 
ery, cottonades,  jeans  and  flannels,  Indian  supplies, 
groceries  and  liquors.  The  young  New  Englander 
soon  found  that  with  such  customers  as  Red  Jacket  and 
other  representative  red-men  his  usefulness  was  im- 
paired unless  he  could  speak  Indian.  With  character- 
istic energy  he  set  himself  at  the  task,  and  in  three 
months  had  mastered  the  Seneca.  New  goods  came 
from  the  East  by  the  old  Mohawk  River  and  Lewiston 
route,  were  poled  up  the  Niagara  from  Schlosser's, 
above  the  falls,  on  flatboats,  and  were  stored  in  a  log 
house  at  the  foot  of  Main  Street. 

Up  to  1810  the  growth  of  Buffalo  had  been  exceed- 
ingly slow,  even  for  a  remote  frontier  point.  But 
about  the  time  Mr.  Lay  came  here  new  life  was  shown. 
Ohio  and  Michigan  were  filling  up,  and  the  tide  of 
migration  strengthened.  Mr.  Hart's  market  extended 
yearly  farther  west  and  southwest,  and  for  a  time  the 
firm  did  a  profitable  business. 

Then  came  the  war,  paralysis  of  trade,  and  destruc- 
tion of  property.  Mr.  Lay  was  enrolled  as  a  private  in 
Butts's  Company,  for  defense.  The  night  the  village 
was  burned  he  with  his  brother-in-law,  Eli  Hart,  were 
in    their   store.     The   people   were  in  terror,   fearing 


1 66        An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

massacre  by  the  Indians,  hesitating  to  fly,  not  knowing 
in  which  direction  safety  lay. 

**John,"  said  Mr.  Hart,  "there's  all  that  liquor  in 
the  cellar  —  the  redskins  mustn't  get  at  that." 

Together  they  went  down  and  knocked  in  the  heads 
of  all  the  casks  until,  as  Mr.  Lay  said  afterwards,  they 
stood  up  to  their  knees  in  liquor.  As  he  was  coming 
up  from  the  work  he  encountered  a  villainous-looking 
Onondaga  chief,  who  was  knocking  off  the  iron  shut- 
ters from  the  store  windows.  They  had  been  none  too 
quick  in  letting  the  whisky  run  into  the  ground.  Mr. 
Lay  said  to  the  Indian  : 

'  *  You  no  hurt  friend  ?  ' ' 

Just  then  a  soldier  jumped  from  his  horse  before  the 
door.  Mr.  Lay  caught  up  a  pair  of  saddle-bags,  filled 
with  silver  and  valuable  papers,  threw  them  across  the 
horse,  and  cried  out  to  his  brother-in-law : 

**  Here,  jump  on  and  strike  out  for  the  woods." 

Mr.  Hart  took  this  advice  and  started.  The  horse 
was  shot  from  under  him,  but  the  rider  fell  unharmed, 
and,  catching  up  the  saddle-bags,  made  his  way  on  foot 
to  the  house  of  another  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Comstock. 
Later  that  day  they  came  back  to  the  town,  and  with 
others  they  picked  up  thirty  dead  bodies  and  put  them 
into  Rees's  blacksmith  shop,  where  the  next  day  they 
were  burned  with  the  shop. 

After  starting  his  relatives  toward  safety,  Mr.  Lay 
thought  of  himself.  The  Onondaga  had  disappeared, 
and  Mr.  Lay  went  into  the  house,  took  a  long  surtout 
that  hung  on  the  wall  and  put  it  on.     As  he  stepped 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant.        167 

out  of  the  door  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and  that  night, 
with  many  others,  soldiers  and  civilians,  was  carried 
across  the  river  to  Canada. 

And  here  begins  an  episode  over  which  I  am 
tempted  to  linger ;  for  the  details  of  his  captivity,  as 
they  were  related  to  me  by  his  widow,  the  late  Mrs. 
Frances  Lay,  are  worthy  of  consideration.  I  will  only 
rehearse,  as  briefly  as  possible,  the  chief  events  of  this 
captivity  in  Canada,  which,  although  not  recorded  in 
Mr.  Lay's  journals,  resulted  in  one  of  his  most  arduous 
and  adventurous  journeys. 

The  night  of  December  30,  1813,  was  bitterly  cold. 
The  captured  and  the  captors  made  a  hard  march  from 
Fort  Erie  to  Newark  —  or,  as  we  know  it  now, 
Niagara,  Ont.,  on  Lake  Ontario.  The  town  was  full 
of  Indians,  and  many  of  the  Indians  were  full  of 
whisky.  Under  the  escort  of  a  body-guard  Mr.  Lay 
was  allowed  to  go  to  the  house  of  a  Mrs.  Secord,  whom 
he  knew.  While  there,  the  enemy  surrounded  the 
house  and  demanded  Lay,  but  Mrs.  Secord  hid  him  in 
a  closet,  and  kept  him  concealed  until  Mr.  Hart,  who 
had  followed  with  a  flag  of  truce,  had  learned  of  his 
safety.  Then  came  the  long,  hard  march  through 
Canadian  snows  to  Montreal.  The  prisoners  were  put 
on  short  rations,  were  grudgingly  given  water  to  drink, 
and  were  treated  with  such  unnecessary  harshness  that 
Mr.  Lay  boldly  told  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  expedi- 
tion that  on  reaching  Montreal  he  should  report  him  to 
the  Government  for  violating  the  laws  of  civilized  war- 
fare. 


1 68       An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

In  March  he  was  exchanged  at  Greenbush,  opposite 
Albany.  There  he  got  some  bounty  and  footed  it 
across  the  country  to  Oneida,  where  his  father  lived. 
As  he  walked  through  the  village  he  saw  his  father's 
sleigh  in  front  of  the  postoffice,  where  his  parents  had 
gone,  hoping  for  news  from  him.  They  burned  his 
war-rags,  and  he  rested  for  a  time  at  his  father's  home, 
sick  of  the  horrors  of  war  and  fearful  lest  his  constitu- 
tion had  been  wrecked  by  the  hardships  he  had  under- 
gone. It  will  be  noted  that  this  enforced  journey  from 
Buffalo  through  Canada  to  Montreal  and  thence  south 
and  west  to  Oneida  had  been  made  in  the  dead  of 
winter  and  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  on  foot.  Instead  of 
killing  him,  as  his  anxious  parents  feared  it  might,  the 
experience  seems  to  have  taught  him  the  pleasures  of 
pedestrianism,  for  it  is  on  foot  and  alone  that  we  are  to 
see  him  undertaking  some  of  his  most  extended  journeys. 

I  cannot  even  pause  to  call  attention  to  the  slow 
recovery  of  Buffalo  from  her  absolute  prostration.  The 
first  house  rebuilt  here  after  the  burning  was  that  of 
Mrs.  Mary  Atkins,  a  young  widow,  whose  husband, 
Lieut.  Asael  Atkins,  had  died  of  an  epidemic  only  ten 
days  before  the  village  was  destroyed.  The  young 
widow  had  fled  with  the  rest,  finding  shelter  at 
Williamsville,  until  her  new  house  was  raised  on  the 
foundation  of  the  old.  It  stood  on  the  corner  of  Church 
and  Pearl  streets,  where  the  Stafford  Building  now  is. 

The  reader  is  perhaps  wondering  what  all  this  has  to 
do  with  John  Lay.  Merely  this :  that  when,  at  Mr. 
Hart's  solicitation,    Mr.    Lay  once  more  returned  to 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        169 

Buffalo,  he  boarded  across  the  common  from  the  rebuilt 
store,  with  the  Widow  Atkins,  and  later  on  married  her 
daughter  Frances,  who,  many  years  his  junior,  long  sur- 
vived him,  and  to  whose  vigorous  memory  and  kind  gra- 
ciousness  we  are  indebted  for  these  pictures  of  the  past. 
The  years  that  followed  the  War  of  1812  were  de- 
voted by  Messrs.  Hart  &  Lay  to  a  new  upbuilding  of 
their  business.  Mr.  Hart,  who  had  ample  capital, 
went  to  New  York  to  do  the  buying  for  the  firm,  and 
continued  to  reside  there,  establishing  as  many  as  five 
general  stores  in  different  parts  of  Western  New  York. 
He  had  discerned  in  his  young  relative  a  rare  com- 
bination of  business  talents,  made  him  a  partner,  and 
entrusted  him  with  the  entire  conduct  of  the  business 
at  Buffalo.  After  peace  was  declared  the  commercial 
opportunities  of  a  well-equipped  firm  here  were  great. 
Each  season  brought  in  larger  demands  from  the 
western  country.  Much  of  the  money  that  accrued 
from  the  sale  of  lands  of  the  Holland  Purchase  flowed 
in  the  course  of  trade  into  their  hands.  The  pioneer 
families  of  towns  to  the  west  of  Buffalo  came  hither 
to  trade,  and  personal  friendships  were  cemented 
among  residents  scattered  through  a  large  section.  I 
find  no  period  of  our  local  history  so  full  of  activities. 
From  Western  New  York  to  Illinois  it  was  a  time  of 
foundation-laying.  Let  me  quote  a  few  paragraphs 
from  memoranda  which  Mrs.  Lay  made  relating  to  this 
period  : 

The  war  had  brought  men  of  strong  character,  able  to  cope 
with  pioneer   life ;    among    others,    professional   men,    surgeons, 


1 70       An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

doctors  and  lawyers  :  Trowbridge,  Marshall,  Johnson,  and  many 
others.  Elliot  of  Erie  was  a  young  lawyer,  of  whom  Mr.  Lay  had 
often  said,  "  His  word  is  as  good  as  his  bond."  Another  friend 
was  Hamot  of  Erie,  who  had  married  Mr.  Hart's  niece.  He 
made  frequent  visits  to  his  countryman,  Louis  Le  Couteulx.  [At 
whose  house,  by  the  way,  John  Lay  and  Frances  Atkins  were 
married.  Red  Jacket  being  among  the  guests.]  At  Erie,  then  a 
naval  station,  were  the  families  of  Dickinson,  Brown,  Kelso,  Reed, 
Col.  Christy,  and  many  others,  all  numbered  among  Mr.  Lay's 
patrons.  Albert  H.  Tracy  came  here  about  that  time  ;  he  brought 
a  letter  from  his  brother  Phineas,  who  had  married  Mr.  Lay's 
sister.  He  requested  Mr.  Lay  to  do  for  him  what  he  could  in  the 
way  of  business.  Mr.  Lay  gave  him  a  room  over  his  store, 
and  candles  and  wood  for  five  years.  Even  in  those  days 
Mr.  Tracy  used  to  declare  that  he  should  make  public  life  his 
business. 

Hart  &  Lay  became  consignees  for  the  Astors  in  the  fur  busi- 
ness. I  well  remember  that  one  vessel-load  of  furs  from  the  West 
got  wet.  To  dry  them  Mr.  Lay  spread  them  on  the  grass,  filling 
the  green  where  the  churches  now  are.  The  wet  skins  tainted  the 
air  so  strongly  that  Mr.  Lay  was  threatened  with  indictment  — 
but  he  saved  the  Astors  a  large  sum  of  money. 

Hart  &  Lay  acquired  tracts  of  land  in  Canada, 
Ohio  and  Michigan.  To  look  after  these  and  other 
interests  Mr.  Lay  made  several  adventurous  journeys  to 
the  West  —  such  journeys  as  deserve  to  be  chronicled 
with  minutest  details,  which  are  not  known  to  have 
been  preserved.  On  one  occasion,  to  look  after 
Detroit  interests,  he  went  up  the  lake  on  the  ice  with 
Maj.  Barton  and  his  wife;  the  party  slept  in  the  wig- 
wams of  Indians,  and  Mr.  Lay  has  left  on  record  his 
admiration  of  Mrs.  Barton's  ability  to  make  even  such 
rough  traveling  agreeable. 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant.        171 

A  still  wilder  journey  took  him  to  Chicago.  He 
went  alone,  save  for  his  Indian  guides,  and  somewhere 
in  the  Western  wilderness  they  came  to  him  and  told 
him  they  had  lost  the  trail.  Before  it  was  regained 
their  provisions  were  exhausted,  and  they  lived  for  a 
time  on  a  few  kernels  of  corn,  a  little  mutton  tallow, 
and  a  sip  of  whisky.  Fort  Dearborn  —  or  Chicago  — 
at  that  date  had  but  one  house,  a  fur-trading  post. 
When  Mr.  Lay  and  his  guides  reached  there  they  were 
so  near  starvation  that  the  people  dared  give  them 
only  a  teaspoonful  of  pigeon  soup  at  a  time.  Nor  had 
starvation  been  the  only  peril  on  this  journey.  An 
attempt  to  rob  him,  if  not  to  murder  him,  lent  a  grim 
spice  to  the  experience.  Mr.  Lay  discovered  that  he 
was  followed,  and  kept  his  big  horse-pistols  in  readiness. 
One  night,  as  he  lay  in  a  log-house,  he  suddenly  felt  a 
hand  moving  along  the  belt  which  he  wore  at  his  waist. 
Instantly  he  raised  his  pistol  and  fired.  The  robber 
dashed  through  the  window,  and  he  was  molested  no 
more. 

Such  adventurous  journeyings  as  these  formed  no 
inconsiderable  part  of  the  work  of  this  pushing  Buffalo 
merchant  during  the  half  dozen  years  that  followed 
the  burning  of  the  town.  Business  grew  so  that  half  a 
dozen  clerks  were  employed,  and  there  were  frequently 
crowds  of  people  waiting  to  be  served.  The  store 
became  a  favorite  rendezvous  of  prominent  men  of  the 
place. 

Many  a  war  episode  was  told  over  there.  Albert 
Gallatin   and    Henry  Clay,    Jackson  and  the   United 


172        Afi  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

States  banks  —  the  great  men  and  measures  of  the  day 
—  were  hotly  discussed  there  ;  and  many  a  time  did 
the  group  listen  as  Mr.  Lay  read  from  Niks'  Regis- 
ter, of  which  he  was  a  constant  subscriber.  There 
were  sometimes  lively  scrimmages  there,  as  the  fol- 
lowing incident,  narrated  by  Mrs.  Lay,  will  illus- 
trate : 

There  was  a  family  in  New  York  City  whose  son 
was  about  to  form  a  misalliance.  His  friends  put  him 
under  Mr.  Hart's  care,  and  he  brought  the  youth  to 
Buffalo.  Here,  however,  an  undreamed-of  difficulty 
was  encountered.  A  young  Seneca  squaw,  well  known 
in  town  as  Suse,  saw  the  youth  from  New  York  and  fell 
desperately  in  love  with  him.  Mr.  Lay,  not  caring  to 
take  the  responsibility  of  such  a  match-making,  shipped 
the  young  man  back  to  New  York.  The  forest  maiden 
was  disconsolate ;  but,  unlike  Viola,  she  told  her  love, 
nor  **let  concealment,  like  the  worm  i'  the  bud,  feed 
on  her  damask  cheek."  Not  a  bit  of  it.  On  the  con- 
trary, whenever  Suse  saw  Mr.  Lay  she  would  ask  him 
where  her  friend  was.  One  day  she  went  into  the 
store,  and,  going  up  to  the  counter  behind  which  Mr. 
Lay  was  busy,  drew  a  club  from  under  her  blanket  and 
**let  him  have  it"  over  the  shoulders.  The  attack 
was  sudden,  but  just  as  suddenly  did  he  jump  over  the 
counter  and  tackle  her.  Suse  was  a  love-lorn  maid, 
but  she  was  strong  as  a  wildcat  and  as  savage.  Albert 
H.  Tracy,  who  was  in  the  store,  afterwards  described 
the  trouble  to  Mrs.  Lay. 

**I  never  saw  a  fight,"  he  said,  'Mvhere  both  par- 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        i  ^'i^ 

ties  came  so  near  being  killed  ;  but  Lay  got  the  better 
of  her,  and  yanked  her  out  into  the  street  with  her 
clothes  torn  off  from  her." 

"  I  should  think  you  would  have  helped  John,"  said 
the  gentle  lady,  as  Mr.  Tracy  told  her  this. 

By  the  close  of  the  year  1821,  although  still  a  young 
man,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  had  made  a  consider- 
able fortune.  Feeling  the  need  of  rest,  and  anxious  to 
extend  his  horizon  beyond  the  frontier  scenes  to  which 
he  was  accustomed,  he  decided  to  go  to  Europe. 
Telling  Mr.  Hart  to  get  another  partner,  the  business 
was  temporarily  left  in  other  hands ;  and  on  February 
5,  1822,  as  narrated  at  the  opening  of  this  paper,  Mr. 
Lay  drove  out  of  town  in  a  crockery-crate,  and  took 
his  course  up  the  ice-covered  lake,  bound  for  Europe. 

Recall,  if  you  please,  something  of  the  conditions 
of  those  times.  No  modern  journeyings  that  we  can 
conceive  of,  short  of  actual  exploration  in  unknown 
regions,  are  quite  comparable  to  such  an  undertaking 
as  Mr.  Lay  proposed.  Partly,  perhaps,  because  it  was 
a  truly  extraordinary  thing  for  a  frontier  merchant  to 
stop  work  and  set  off  for  an  indefinite  period  of  sight- 
seeing ;  and  partly,  too,  because  he  was  a  man  whose 
love  for  the  accumulation  of  knowledge  was  regulated 
by  precise  habits,  we  are  now  able  to  follow  him  in 
the  closely-written,  faded  pages  of  half  a  dozen  fat 
journals,  written  by  his  own  hand  day  by  day  during 
the  two  years  of  his  wanderings.  No  portion  of  these 
journals  has  ever  been  published ;  yet  they  are  full  of 
interesting  pictures  of  the  past,  and  show  Mr.  Lay  to 


174        ^^  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

have  been  a  close  observer  and  a  receptive  student  of 
nature  and  of  men. 

The  reason  for  his  crockery-crate  outfit  may  have 
been  divined.  He  wanted  a  sleigh  which  he  could 
leave  behind  without  loss  when  the  snow  disappeared. 

Business  took  him  first  to  Cleveland^  which  he 
reached  in  six  days,  driving  much  of  the  distance  oh  the 
lake.  Returning,  at  Erie  he  headed  south  and  fol- 
lowed the  old  French  Creek  route  to  the  Allegheny. 
Presently  the  snow  disappeared.  The  crockery-crate 
sleigh  was  abandoned,  and  the  journey  lightly  contin- 
ued in  the  saddle ;  among  the  few  impedimenta  which 
were  carried  in  the  saddle-bags  being  ^^a  fine  picture 
of  Niagara  Falls,  painted  on  satin,  and  many  Indian 
curiosities  to  present  to  friends  on  the  other  side. ' ' 

Pittsburg  was  reached  March  2d  ;  and,  after  a  delay 
of  four  days,  during  which  he  sold  his  horse  for  $30,  we 
find  our  traveler  embarked  on  the  new  steamer  Gen, 
Neville,  carrying  $120,000  worth  of  freight  and  fifty 
passengers. 

Those  were  the  palmy  days  of  river  travel.  There 
were  no  railroads  to  cut  freight  rates,  or  to  divert  the 
passenger  traffic.  The  steamers  were  the  great  trans- 
porters of  the  middle  West.  The  Ohio  country  was 
just  emerging  from  the  famous  period  which  made  the 
name  *^ river-man"  synonymous  with  all  that  was  dis- 
reputable. It  was  still  the  day  of  poor  taverns,  poor 
food,  much  bad  liquor,  fighting,  and  every  manifesta- 
tion of  the  early  American  vulgarity,  ignorance  and 
boastfulness  which  amazed  every  foreigner  who  ven- 


An  Early  Buffalo  Mercha^it,        1 75 

tured  to  travel  in  that  part  of  the  United  States, 
and  sent  him  home  to  magnify  his  bad  impressions  in 
a  book.  But  with  all  its  discomforts,  the  great  South- 
ern river  route  of  1822  proved  infinitely  enjoyable  to 
our  Buffalonian.  At  Louisville,  where  the  falls  inter- 
cepted travel,  he  reembarked  on  the  boat  Frank- 
fort for  a  fourteen -days'  journey  to  New  Orleans. 
Her  cargo  included  barrels  of  whisky,  hogsheads  of 
tobacco,  some  flour  and  cotton,  packs  of  furs,  and  two 
barrels  of  bear's  oil  —  how  many  years,  I  wonder, 
since  that  last  item  has  been  found  in  a  bill  of  lading 
on  an  Ohio  steamer  ! 

I  must  hurry  our  traveler  on  to  New  Orleans,  where, 
on  a  Sunday,  he  witnessed  a  Congo  dance,  attended 
by  5,000  people,  and  at  a  theater  saw  **The  Battle  of 
Chippewa ' '  enacted.  There  are  antiquarians  of  the 
Niagara  Frontier  today  who  would  start  for  New 
Orleans  by  first  train  if  they  thought  they  could  see 
that  play. 

April  27th,  Mr.  Lay  sailed  from  New  Orleans,  the 
only  passenger  on  the  ship  Triton,  310  tons,  cotton - 
laden,  for  Liverpool.  It  was  ten  days  before  they 
passed  the  bar  of  the  Mississippi  and  entered  the  Gulf, 
and  it  was  not  until  June  28th  that  they  anchored  in 
the  Mersey.  The  chronicle  of  this  sixty  days'  voyage, 
as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  journals  kept  at  sea,  is  ex- 
ceedingly minute  in  detail.  Day  after  day  it  is 
recorded  that  '' we  sailed  thirty  miles  to-day,"  '*  sailed 
forty  miles  to-day,"  etc.  There's  travel  for  you  — 
thirty  miles  on  long  tacks,  in  twenty-four  hours  !     The 


176        An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

ocean  greyhound  was  as  yet  unborn.  The  chief  diver- 
sion of  the  passage  was  a  gale  which  blew  them  along 
195  miles  in  twenty-four  hours ;  and  an  encounter 
with  a  whaleship  that  had  not  heard  a  word  from  the 
United  States  in  three  years.  *'  I  tossed  into  their 
boat,"  Mr.  Lay  writes,  **a  package  of  newspapers. 
The  captain  clutched  them  with  the  avidity  of  a  starv- 
ing man." 

Ashore  in  Liverpool,  the  first  sight  he  saw  was  a 
cripple  being  carried  through  the  streets  —  the  only 
survivor  from  the  wreck  of  the  President,  just  lost  on 
the  Irish  coast.* 

He  hastened  to  London  just  too  late  to  witness  the 
coronation  of  George  IV. ,  but  followed  the  multitude 
to  Scotland,  where,  as  he  writes,  *'the  outlay  of  atten- 
tions to  this  bad  man  was  beyond  belief.  Many  of 
the  nobility  were  nearly  ruined  thereby."  He  was  in 
Edinburgh  on  the  night  of  August  15,  1822,  when  that 
city  paid  homage  to  the  new  King ;  saw  the  whole 
coast  of  Fife  illuminated  *'with  bonfires  composed  of 
thirty  tons  of  coal  and  nearly  1,000  gallons  of  tar  and 
other  combustibles ' ' ;  and  the  next  day,  wearing  a 
badge  of  Edinburgh  University,  was  thereby  enabled 
to  gain  a  good  place  to  view  the  guests  as  they  passed 
on  their  way  to  a  royal  levee.  To  the  nobility  our 
Buffalonian  gave  little  heed  ;  but  when  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  carriage  drove  slowly  by  he  gazed  his  fill.    *'  He 


^  This  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  wreck  of  the  steamer  President, 
which  was  never  heard  from  after  the  storm  of  March  13,  1841.  The 
President  of  which  Mr.  Lay  wrote  was  obviously  a  bark,  ship,  or  other 
sailing  craft. 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        177 

has  gray  thin  hair  and  a  thoughtful  look,"  Mr.  Lay 
wrote.  **The  Heart  of  Midlothian"  had  just  been 
published,  and  Mr.  Lay  went  on  foot  over  all  the 
ground  mentioned  in  that  historical  romance.  He 
stayed  in  pleasant  private  lodgings  in  Edinburgh  for  six 
months,  making  pedestrian  excursions  to  various  parts 
of  Scotland.  In  twenty-eight  days  of  these  wanderings 
he  walked  260  miles. 

Instead  of  following  him  closely  in  these  rambles, 
my  readers  are  asked  to  recall,  for  a  moment,  the  time 
of  this  visit.  Great  Britain  was  as  yet,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  in  the  eighteenth  century.  She  had  few 
canals  and  no  railroads,  no  applied  uses  of  steam  and 
electricity.  True,  Stephenson  had  experimented  on 
the  Killingworth  Railway  in  1814  ;  but  Parliament  had 
passed  the  first  railway  act  only  a  few  months  before 
Mr.  Lay  reached  England,  and  the  railway  era  did  not 
actually  set  in  until  eight  years  later.  There  is  no 
reference  in  the  Lay  journals  to  steam  locomotives  or 
railways.  Liverpool,  which  was  built  up  by  the  African 
slave  trade,  was  still  carrying  it  on ;  the  Reform  Bill 
was  not  born  in  Parliament ;  it  was  still  the  old  regime. 

Our  traveler  was  much  struck  by  the  general  bad 
opinion  which  prevailed  regarding  America.  On 
meeting  him,  people  often  could  not  conceal  their  sur- 
prise that  so  intelligent  and  well-read  a  man  should  be 
an  American,  and  a  frontier  tradesman  at  that.  They 
quizzed  him  about  the  workings  of  popular  government. 

I  told  them  [writes  this  true-hearted  democrat]  that  as  long  a  s 
we  demanded  from  our  public  men  honesty  and  upright  dealings, 


178        An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

our  institutions  would  be  safe,  but  when  men  could  be  bought  or 
sold  I  feared  the  influence  would  operate  ruinously,  as  all  former 
republics  had  failed  for  lack  of  integrity  and  honesty. 

His  political  talks  brought  to  him  these  definitions, 
which  I  copy  from  his  journal : 

Tory  was  originally  a  name  given  to  the  wild  Irish  robbers  who 
favored  the  massacre  of  the  Protestants  in  1641.  It  was  after- 
ward applied  to  all  highflyers  of  the  Church.  Whig  was  a  name 
first  given  to  the  country  field-elevation  meetings,  their  ordinary 
drink  being  whig,  or  whey,  or  coagulated  sour  milk.  Those 
against  the  Court  interest  during  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.  and 
James  II.  and  for  the  Court  in  the  reigns  of  William  and  George 
I.  were  called  Whigs.  A  Yankee  is  thus  defined  by  an  English- 
man, who  gives  me  what  is  most  likely  the  correct  derivation  of 
the  epithet :  The  Cherokee  word  eanker  [?]  signifies  coward  or 
slave.  The  Virginians  gave  the  New  Englanders  this  name  for 
not  assisting  in  a  war  with  the  Cherokees  in  the  early  settlement 
of  their  country,  but  after  the  affair  of  Bunker  Hill  the  New  Eng- 
landers gloried  in  the  name,  and  in  retaliation  called  the  Virginians 
Buckskins,  in  allusion  to  their  ancestors  being  hunters,  and  selling 
as  well  as  wearing  buckskins  in  place  of  cloth. 

In  Edinburgh  he  saw  and  heard  much  of  some  of 
Scotia's  chief  literary  folk.  Burns  had  been  dead 
twenty-six  years,  but  he  was  still  much  spoken  of, 
much  read,  and  admired  far  more  than  when  he  lived. 
With  Mr.  Stenhouse,  who  for  years  was  an  intimate 
of  Burns,  Mr.  Lay  formed  a  close  acquaintance : 

Mr.  Stenhouse  has  in  his  possession  [says  the  journal]  the  mss. 
of  all  of  Burns's  writings.  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  perusing 
them,  which  I  think  a  great  treat.  In  the  last  of  Burns's  letters 
which  I  read  he  speaks  of  his  approaching  dissolution  with  sorrow, 
of  the  last  events  in  his  life  in  the  most  touching  and  delicate 
language. 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        1 79 

The  journal  relates  some  original  Burns  anecdotes, 
which  Mr.  Lay  had  from  the  former  companions  of  the 
bard,  but  which  have  probably  never  been  made  pub- 
lic, possibly  because  —  in  characteristic  contrast  to  the 
letter  referred  to  above  —  they  are  touching  but  not 
delicate. 

Our  Buffalonian  encountered  numerous  literary  lions, 
and  writes  entertainingly  of  them.  He  speaks  often  of 
Scott,  who  he  says  '*is  quite  the  theme.  He  is  con- 
stantly writing  —  something  from  his  pen  is  shortly 
expected.  I  saw  him  walking  on  the  day  of  the  grand 
procession.  He  is  very  lame,  has  been  lame  from  his 
youth,  a  fact  I  did  not  know  before. ' '  James  Hogg, 
author  of  the  '*  Winter  Evening  Tales,"  lived  near 
Edinburgh.  Mr.  Lay  described  him  as  *^a  singular 
rustic  sort  of  a  genius,  but  withal  clever  —  very  little 
is  said  about  him. ' ' 

I  have  touched  upon  Mr.  Lay's  achievements  in 
pedestrianism,  a  mode  of  travel  which  he  doubtless 
adopted  partly  because  of  the  vigorous  pleasure  it  afford- 
ed, partly  because  it  was  the  only  way  in  which  to  visit 
some  sections  of  the  country.  A  man  who  had  walked 
from  Fort  Erie  to  Montreal,  to  say  nothing  of  hun- 
dreds of  miles  done  under  pleasanter  circumstances, 
would  naturally  take  an  interest  in  the  pedestrian 
achievements  of  others.  Whoever  cares  for  this 
''sport"  will  find  in  the  Lay  journals  unexpected 
revelations  on  the  diversions  and  contests  of  three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  ago.  Have  we  not  regarded  the 
walking-match  as  a  modern  mania,  certainly  not  ante- 


i8o       An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant, 

dating  Weston's  achievements  ?     Yet  listen  to  this  page 
of  the  old  journal,  dated  Edinburgh,  Aug.  27,  1822: 

I  went  to  see  a  pedestrian  named  Russell,  from  the  north  of 
England,  who  had  undertaken  to  walk  102  miles  in  twenty-four 
successive  hours.  He  commenced  his  task  yesterday  at  1.15 
o'clock.  The  spot  chosen  was  in  the  vale  between  the  Mound 
and  the  North  Bridge,  which  gave  an  opportunity  for  a  great 
number  of  spectators  to  see  him  to  advantage ;  yet  the  numbers 
were  so  great  and  so  much  interested  that  there  were  persons  con- 
stantly employed  to  clear  his  way.  The  ground  he  walked  over 
measured  one  eighth  of  a  mile.  I  saw  him  walk  the  last  mile, 
which  he  did  in  twelve  minutes.  He  finished  his  task  with  eleven 
minutes  to  spare,  and  was  raised  on  the  shoulders  of  men  and 
borne  away  to  be  put  into  a  carriage  from  which  the  horses  were 
taken.  The  multitude  then  drew  him  through  many  principal 
streets  of  the  city  in  triumph.  The  Earl  of  Fyfe  agreed  to  give 
him  ;^30  if  he  finished  his  work  within  the  given  time.  He 
also  got  donations  from  others.  Large  bets  were  depending,  one 
of  500  guineas.  He  carried  a  small  blue  flag  toward  the  last  and 
was  loudly  cheered  by  the  spectators  at  intervals. 

Nor  was  the  *' sport"  confined  to  Scotland.  Au- 
gust 4,  1823,  being  in  London,  Mr.  Lay  writes : 

To-day  a  girl  of  eight  years  of  age  undertook  to  walk  thirty 
miles  in  eight  consecutive  hours.  She  accomplished  her  task  in 
seven  hours  and  forty-nine  minutes  without  being  distressed.  A 
wager  of  100  sovereigns  was  laid.  This  great  pedestrian  feat  took 
place  at  Chelsea. 

A  few  weeks  later  he  writes  again  : 

This  is  truly  the  age  of  pedestrianism.  A  man  has  just  ac- 
complished 1,250  miles  in  twenty  successive  days.  He  is  now  to 
walk  backward  forty  miles  a  day  for  three  successive  days.  Mr. 
Irvine,  the  pedestrian,  who  attempted  to  walk  from  London  to 
York  and  back,  394  miles,  in  five  days  and  eight  hours,  accom- 
plished it  in  five  days  seven  and  one-half  hours. 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant.        i8i 

With  men  walking  backwards  and  eight-years-old 
girls  on  the  track,  these  Britons  of  three-quarters  of  a 
century  ago  still  deserve  the  palm.  But  Mr.  Lay's 
own  achievements  are  not  to  be  lightly  passed  over. 
Before  leaving  London  he  wrote  :  ''  The  whole  length 
of  my  perambulations  in  London  and  vicinity  exceeds 
1,200  miles." 

The  journals,  especially  during  the  months  of  his 
residence  in  Scotland,  abound  in  descriptions  of  people 
and  of  customs  now  pleasant  to  recall  because  for  the 
most  part  obsolete.  He  heard  much  rugged  theology 
from  Scotland's  greatest  preachers;  had  an  encounter 
with  robbers  in  the  dark  and  poorly -policed  streets  of 
Edinburgh  ;  had  his  pockets  picked  while  watching  the 
King ;  and  saw  a  boy  hanged  in  public  for  house- 
breaking. With  friends  he  went  to  a  Scotch  wedding, 
the  description  of  which  is  so  long  that  I  can  only  give 
parts  of  it : 

About  forty  had  assembled.  The  priest,  a  Protestant,  united 
them  with  much  ceremony,  giving  them  a  long  lecture,  after 
which  dinner  was  served  up  and  whisky  toddy.  At  six,  dancing 
commenced  and  was  kept  up  with  spirit  until  eleven,  when  we  had 
tea,  after  which  dancing  continued  until  three  in  the  morning. 
The  Scotch  dances  differ  from  the  American,  and  the  dancers  hold 
out  longer.  The  girls  particularly  do  not  tire  so  early  as  ours  at 
home.  We  retired  to  the  house  where  the  bride  and  groom  were 
to  be  bedded.  The  females  of  the  party  first  put  the  bride  to  bed, 
and  the  bridegroom  was  then  led  in  by  the  men.  After  both  were 
in  bed  liquor  was  served.  The  groom  threw  his  left-leg  hose. 
Whoever  it  lights  upon  is  next  to  be  married.  The  stocking 
lighted  on  my  head,  which  caused  a  universal  shout.  We  reached 
home  at  half  past  six  in  the  morning,  on  foot. 


1 82        An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant. 

I  have  been  much  too  long  in  getting  Mr.  Lay  to 
London,  to  go  about  much  with  him  there.  And  yet 
the  temptation  is  great,  for  to  an  American  of  Mr. 
Lay's  intelligence  and  inquiring  mind  the  great  city 
was  beyond  doubt  the  most  diverting  spot  on  earth. 
One  of  the  first  sights  he  saw  —  a  May-day  procession 
of  chimney-sweeps,  their  clothes  covered  with  gilt 
paper  —  belonged  more  to  the  seventeenth  century 
than  to  the  nineteenth.  Peel  and  Wilberforce, 
Brougham  and  Lord  Gower,  were  celebrities  whom  he 
lost  no  time  in  seeing.  On  the  Thames  he  saw  the 
grand  annual  rowing  match  for  the  Othello  wherry 
prize,  given  by  Edmund  Kean  in  commemoration  of 
Garrick's  last  public  appearance  on  June  10,  1776. 
Mr.  Lay's  description  of  the  race,  and  of  Kean  himself, 
who  *' witnessed  the  whole  in  an  eight-oared  cutter," 
is  full  of  color  and  appreciative  spirit.  He  saw  a  man 
brought  before  the  Lord  Mayor  who  '  *  on  a  wager  had 
eaten  two  pounds  of  candles  and  drank  seven  glasses  of 
rum,"  and  who  at  another  time  had  eaten  at  one  meal 
"  nine  pounds  of  ox  hearts  and  taken  drink  propor- 
tionately"; and  he  went  to  Bartholomew's  Fair,  that 
most  audacious  of  English  orgies,  against  which  even 
the  public  sentiment  of  that  loose  day  was  beginning 
to  protest.  As  American  visitors  at  Quebec  feel  to-day 
a  flush  of  patriotic  resentment  when  the  orderly  in  the 
citadel  shows  them  the  little  cannon  captured  at  Bunker 
Hill,  so  our  loyal  friend,  with  more  interest  than 
pleasure,  saw  in  the  chapel  at  Whitehall,  ^'  on  each  side 
and  over  the  altar  eight  or  ten  eagles,  taken  from  the 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        183 

French,  and  flags  of  different  nations  ;  the  eagle  of  the 
United  States  is  among  them,  two  taken  at  New  Orleans, 
one  at  Fort  Niagara,  one  at  Queenston,  and  three  at 
Detroit ' ' ;  but  like  the  American  at  Quebec,  who,  the 
familiar  story  has  it,  on  being  taunted  with  the  captured 
Bunker  Hill  trophy,  promptly  replied,  ''Yes,  you  got 
the  cannon,  but  we  kept  the  hill,"  Mr.  Lay,  we  may 
be  sure,  found  consolation  in  the  thought  that  though 
we  lost  a  few  eagle-crested  standards,  we  kept  the  Bird 
o'  Freedom's  nest. 

On  July  5,  1823,  he  crossed  London  Bridge  on  foot, 
and  set  out  on  an  exploration  of  rural  England ;  tour- 
ings in  which  I  can  not  take  space  to  follow  him. 
When  he  first  went  abroad  he  had  contemplated  a  trip 
on  the  continent.  This,  however,  he  found  it  advis- 
able to  abandon,  and  on  October  5,  1823,  on  board 
the  Galatea,  he  was  beating  down  the  channel,  bound 
for  Boston.  The  journey  homeward  was  full  of  grim 
adventure.  A  tempest  attended  them  across  the 
Atlantic.  In  one  night  of  terror,  "which  I  can  never 
forget, ' '  he  writes,  * '  the  ship  went  twice  entirely 
around  the  compass,  and  in  very  short  space,  with  con- 
tinual seas  breaking  over  her. ' '  The  sailors  mutinied 
and  tried  to  throw  the  first  mate  into  the  sea.  Swords, 
pistols  and  muskets  were  made  ready  by  the  captain. 
Mr.  Lay  armed  himself  and  helped  put  down  the 
rebellion.  When  the  captain  was  once  more  sure  of 
his  command,  ''Jack,  a  Swede,  was  taken  from  his 
confinement,  lashed  up,  and  whipped  with  a  cat-o'- 
nine-tails,  then  sent  to  duty."     The  dose  of  cat  was 


184       An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant, 

afterwards  administered  to  the  others.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  traveler's  heart  was  cheered  when,  on  Novem- 
ber 13th,  the  storm-tossed  Galatea  passed  under  the 
guns  of  Forts  Warren  and  Independence  and  he  stepped 
ashore  at  Boston. 

He  did  not  hurry  away,  but  explored  that  city  and 
vicinity  thoroughly,  going  everywhere  on  foot,  as  he 
had,  for  the  most  part,  in  England.  He  visited  the 
theaters  and  saw  the  celebrities  of  the  day,  both  of 
the  stage  and  the  pulpit.  At  the  old  Boston  Theater, 
Cooper  was  playing  Marc  Antony,  with  Mr.  Finn  as 
Brutus,  and  Mr.  Barrett  as  Cassius. 

On  November  20th  he  pictures  a  New-England 
Thanksgiving : 

This  is  Thanksgiving  Day  throughout  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts. It  is  most  strictly  observed  in  this  city ;  no  business 
whatever  is  transacted  —  all  shops  remained  shut  throughout  the 
day.  All  the  churches  in  the  city  were  open,  divine  service  per- 
formed, and  everything  wore  the  appearance  of  Sunday.  Great 
dinners  are  prepared  and  eaten  on  this  occasion,  and  in  the  even- 
ing the  theaters  and  ball-rooms  tremble  with  delight  and  carriages 
fill  the  streets.  ...  A  drunken,  riotous  gang  of  fellows  got 
under  our  windows  yelping  and  making  a  great  tumult. 

A  week  later,  sending  his  baggage  ahead  by  stage- 
coach, he  passed  over  Cambridge  Bridge,  on  foot  for 
Buffalo,  by  way  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Washing- 
ton, Pittsburg  and  Erie. 

Once  more  I  must  regret  that  reasonable  demands 
on  the  reader's  patience  will  not  let  me  dwell  with  much 
detail  on  the  incidents  and  observations  of  this  unusual 
journey.     No  man  could  take  such  a  grand  walk  and  fail 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        185 

to  see  and  learn  much  of  interest.  But  here  was  a  prac- 
tical, shrewd,  observant  gentleman  who,  just  returned 
from  two  years  in  Great  Britain,  was  studying  his  own 
countrymen  and  weighing  their  condition  and  ideas 
by  most  intelligent  standards.  The  result  is  that  the 
pages  of  the  journals  reflect  with  unaccustomed  fidelity 
the  spirit  of  those  days,  and  form  a  series  of  historical 
pictures  not  unworthy  our  careful  attention.  Just  a 
glimpse  or  two  by  the  way,  and  I  am  through. 

The  long-settled  towns  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut appeared  to  him  in  the  main  thrifty  and  grow- 
ing. Hartford  he  found  a  place  of  7,000  inhabitants, 
"  completely  but  irregularly  built,  the  streets  crooked 
and  dirty,  with  sidewalks  but  no  pavements."  He 
passed  through  Wethersfield,  **  famous  for  its  quantities 
of  onions.  A  church  was  built  here,  and  its  bell  pur- 
chased," he  records,  **with  this  vegetable."  New 
Haven  struck  him  as  **  elegant,  but  not  very  flourish- 
ing, with  300  students  in  Yale."  Walking  from 
twenty-five  to  thirty-five  miles  a  day,  he  reached  Rye, 
just  over  the  New  York  State  line,  on  the  ninth  day 
from  Boston,  and  found  people  burning  turf  or  peat  for 
fuel,  the  first  of  this  that  he  had  noticed  in  the  United 
States. 

At  Harlem  Bridge,  which  crosses  to  New  York 
Island,  he  found  some  fine  houses,  '^the  summer  resi- 
dences of  opulent  New  Yorkers ' '  ;  and  the  next  day 
**set  out  for  New  York,  seven  miles  distant,  over  a 
perfectly  straight  and  broad  road,  through  a  rough, 
rocky  and  unpleasing  region. ' '     In  New  York,  where 


1 86       An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant, 

he  rested  a  few  days,  he  reviewed  his  New  England 
walk  of  212  miles  : 

The  general  aspect  of  the  country  is  pleasing  ;  inns  are  provided 
with  the  best,  the  people  are  kind  and  attentive.  I  think  I  have 
never  seen  tables  better  spread.  I  passed  through  thirty-six 
towns  on  the  journey,  which  are  of  no  mean  appearance.  I  never 
had  a  more  pleasant  or  satisfactory  excursion.  There  are  a  great 
number  of  coaches  for  public  conveyance  plying  on  this  great 
road.  The  fare  is  $12  for  the  whole  distance.  Formerly  it  was 
254  miles  between  Boston  and  New  York,  but  the  roads  are  now 
straightened,  which  has  shortened  the  distance  to  212  miles. 

He  had  experienced  a  Boston  Thanksgiving.  In 
New  York,  on  Thursday,  December  18th,  he  had  another 
one.  Thanksgiving  then  was  a  matter  of  State  proc- 
lamation, as  now,  but  the  day  had  not  been  given  its 
National  character,  and  in  many  of  the  States  was  not 
observed  at  all.  We  have  seen  what  it  was  like  in 
Boston.  In  New  York,  **  business  appears  as  brisk  as 
on  any  other  laboring  day. ' '  The  churches,  however, 
were  open  for  service,  and  our  traveler  went  to  hear 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Cummings  in  Vanderventer  Street,  and  to 
contribute  to  a  collection  in  behalf  of  the  Greeks. 

Four  da)^s  before  Christmas  he  crossed  to  Hoboken, 
and  trudged  his  way  through  New  Jersey  snow  and 
mud  to  Philadelphia,  which  he  reached  on  Christmas. 
At  the  theater  that  night  he  attended  — 

a  benefit  for  Mr.  Booth  of  Covent  Garden,  London,  and  was  filled 
with  admiration  for  Mr.  Booth,  but  the  dancing  by  Miss  Hathwell 
was  shocking  in  the  extreme.  The  house  was  for  a  long  time  in 
great  uproar,  and  nothing  would  quiet  them  but  an  assurance 
from  the  manager  of  Mr.  Booth's  reappearance. 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant.        187 

This  of  course  was  Junius  Brutus  Booth.  Here  is  Mr. 
Lay's  pen-picture  of  Philadelphia  seventy-six  years  ago  : 

The  streets  of  Philadelphia  cross  at  right  angles ;  are  perfectly 
straight,  well-paved  but  miserably  lighted.  The  sidewalks  break 
with  wooden  bars  on  which  various  things  are  suspended,  and  in 
the  lower  streets  these  bars  are  appropriated  for  drying  the  wash- 
women's clothes.  Carpets  are  shaken  in  the  streets  at  all  hours, 
and  to  the  annoyance  of  the  passer-by.  Mr.  Peale  of  the  old 
Philadelphia  Museum  was  lecturing  three  nights  a  week  on  gal- 
vanism, and  entertaining  the  populace  with  a  magic  lantern. 

It  is  much  the  same  Philadelphia  yet. 

January  8th,  Mr.  Lay  took  his  way  south  to  Balti- 
more, making  slow  progress  because  of  muddy  roads ; 
but  he  had  set  out  to  walk,  and  so  he  pushed  ahead 
on  to  Washington,  although  there  were  eight  coaches 
daily  for  the  conveyance  of  passengers  between  the 
two  cities,  the  fare  being  $4.  The  road  for  part  of 
the  way  lay  through  a  wilderness.  ^  *  The  inns  generally 
were  bad  and  the  attention  to  travelers  indifferent. ' ' 

In  Washington,  which  he  reached  on  January  14th,  he 
lost  no  time  in  going  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
where  he  was  soon  greeted  by  Albert  H.  Tracy,  whose 
career  in  Congress  I  assume  to  be  familiar  to  the  reader. 

On  the  day  named,  the  House  was  crowded  to  excess  with 
spectators,  a  great  number  of  whom  were  ladies,  in  conse- 
quence of  Mr.  Clay's  taking  the  floor.  He  spoke  for  two  hours 
on  the  subject  of  internal  improvements,  and  the  next  day  the 
question  of  erecting  a  statue  to  Washington  somewhere  about 
the  Capitol,  was  debated  warmly. 

On  his  return  North,  in  passing  through  Baltimore,  he 
called  on  Henry  Niles,  who  as  editor  of  Niks'  Weekly 


1 88       An  Early  Bujfalo  Merchant. 

Register  J  was  to  thousands  of  Americans  of  that  day 
what  Horace  Greeley  became  later  on  —  an  oracle ; 
and  on  January  18th  struck  out  over  a  fine  turnpike 
road  for  Pittsburg. 

The  Pittsburg  pike  was  then  the  greatest  highway  to 
the  West.  The  Erie  Canal  was  nearing  completion, 
and  the  stage-routes  across  New  York  State  saw  much 
traffic.  Yet  the  South-Pennsylvania  route  led  more 
directly  to  the  Ohio  region,  and  it  had  more  traffic 
from  the  West  to  the  East  than  the  more  northern 
highways  had  for  years  to  come.  In  the  eastern  part 
of  the  State  it  extends  through  one  of  the  most  fer- 
tile and  best-settled  parts  of  the  United  States.  Far* 
ther  west  it  climbs  a  forest-clad  mountain,  winds 
through  picturesque  valleys,  and  from  one  end  of  the 
great  State  to  the  other  is  yet  a  pleasant  path  for  the 
modern  tourist.  The  great  Conestoga  wagons  in  end- 
less trains,  which  our  pedestrian  seldom  lost  sight  of, 
have  now  disappeared.  The  wayside  inns  are  gone  or 
have  lost  their  early  character,  and  the  locomotive  has 
everywhere  set  a  new  pace  for  progress. 

When  Mr.  Lay  entered  the  Blue  Ridge  section,  be- 
yond Chambersburg,  he  found  Dutch  almost  the  only 
language  spoken.  The  season  was  at  first  mild,  and  as 
he  tramped  along  the  Juniata,  it  seemed  to  him  like 
May.  *'Land,"  he  notes,  "is  to  be  had  at  from  $1 
to  $3  per  acre. ' '  It  took  him  seventeen  days  to  walk 
to  Pittsburg.     Of  the  journey  as  a  whole  he  says  : 

At  Chambersburg  the  great  stage  route  from  Philadelphia 
unites  with  the  Baltimore  road.     Taverns  on  these  roads  are  fre- 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant.        189 

quent  and  nearly  in  sight  of  each  other.  The  gates  for  the  col- 
lection of  tolls  differ  in  distance  —  some  five,  others  ten,  and  others 
twenty-five  miles  asunder.  Notwithstanding  the  travel  is  great 
the  stock  yields  no  profit,  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  sinking  con- 
cern on  some  parts,  and  several  of  the  companies  are  in  debt  for 
opening  the  road.  About  $100  per  mile  are  annually  expended  in 
repairs.  It  cost  a  great  sum  to  open  the  road,  particularly  that 
portion  leading  over  the  mountains  and  across  the  valleys. 

Taverns  are  very  cheap  in  their  charges  ;  meals  are  a  fourth  of 
a  dollar,  beds  6j^  cents,  liquors  remarkably  cheap.  Their  tables 
are  loaded  with  food  in  variety,  well  prepared  and  cleanly  served 
up  with  the  kindest  attention  and  smiling  cheerfulness.  The 
women  are  foremost  in  kind  abilities.  Beer  is  made  at  Chambers- 
burg  of  an  excellent  quality  and  at  other  places.  A  good  deal 
of  this  beverage  is  used  and  becoming  quite  common  ;  it  is  found 
at  most  of  the  good  taverns.  Whisky  is  universally  drank  and  it 
is  most  prevalent.  Places  for  divine  service  are  rarely  to  be  met 
with  immediately  on  the  road.  The  inhabitants,  however,  are 
provided  with  them  not  far  distant  in  the  back  settlements,  for 
almost  the  whole  distance.  The  weather  has  been  so  cold  that 
for  the  two  last  days  before  reaching  Pittsburg  I  could  not  keep 
myself  comfortable  in  walking  ;  indeed,  I  thought  several  times  I 
might  perish. 

In  Pittsburg  he  lodged  at  the  old  Spread  Eagle 
Tavern,  and  afterwards  at  Conrad  Upperman's  inn  on 
Front  Street  at  $2  a  week.  He  found  the  city  dull 
and  depressed  : 

The  streets  are  almost  deserted,  a  great  number  of  the  houses 
not  tenanted,  shops  shut,  merchants  and  mechanics  failed  ;  the 
rivers  are  both  banked  by  ice,  and  many  other  things  wearing  the 
aspect  of  decayed  trade  and  stagnation  of  commerce.  Money  I 
find  purchases  things  very  low.  Flour  from  this  city  is  sent  over 
the  mountains  to  Philadelphia  for  %\  per  barrel,  which  will  little 
more  than  half  pay  the  wagoner's  expenses  for  the  280  miles. 
Superfine  flour  was  $4,121^  in  Philadelphia,  and  coal  three  cents 


190        An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant, 

per  bushel.     Coal  for  cooking  is  getting  in  use  in  this  city  —  prob- 
ably two-thirds  the  cooking  is  with  coal. 

He  had  had  no  trouble  up  to  this  point  in  sending 
his  baggage  ahead.  It  was  some  days  before  the  stage 
left  for  Erie.  All  was  at  length  dispatched,  however, 
and  on  February  14th  he  crossed  over  to  Allegheny  — 
I  think  there  was  no  bridge  there  then  —  and  marched 
along,  day  after  day,  through  Harmony,  Mercer  and 
Meadville,  his  progress  much  impeded  by  heavy  snow  ; 
at  Waterford  he  met  his  old  friend  G.  A.  Elliott,  and 
went  to  a  country  dance  ;  and,  finally,  on  February  20th 
found  himself  at  Mr.  Hamot's  dinner-table  in  Erie, 
surrounded  by  old  friends.  They  held  him  for  two 
days ;  then,  in  spite  of  heavy  snow,  he  set  out  on  foot 
for  Buffalo.  Even  the  faded  pages  of  the  old  journal 
which  hold  the  record  of  these  last  few  days  bespeak 
the  eager  nervousness  which  one  long  absent  feels  as 
his  wanderings  bring  him  near  home.  With  undaunted 
spirit,  our  walker  pushed  on  eastward  to  the  house  of 
Col.  N.  Bird,  two  miles  beyond  Westfield  j  and  the 
next  day,  with  Col.  Bird,  drove  through  a  violent  snow- 
storm to  Mayville  to  visit  Mr.  William  Peacock  —  the 
first  ride  he  had  taken  since  landing  in  Boston  in 
November  of  the  previous  year.  But  he  was  known 
throughout  the  neighborhood,  and  his  friends  seem  to 
have  taken  possession  of  him.  From  Mr.  Bird's  he 
went  in  a  stage-sleigh  to  Fredonia  to  visit  the  Burtons. 
Snow  two  feet  deep  detained  him  in  Hanover  town, 
where  friends  showed  him  ' '  some  tea-seed  bought  of  a 
New-England  peddler,  who  left  written  directions  for 


An  Early  Buffalo  Merchant,        191 

its  cultivation."  "It's  all  an  imposition,"  is  Mr. 
Lay's  comment  —  but  what  a  horde  of  smooth-tongued 
tricksters  New  England  has  to  answer  for ! 

The  stage  made  its  way  through  the  drifts  with  diffi- 
culty to  the  Cattaraugus,  where  Mr.  Lay  left  it,  and 
stoutly  set  out  on  foot  once  more.  For  the  closing 
stages  of  this  great  journey  let  me  quote  direct  from 
the  journal : 

I  proceeded  over  banks  of  drifted  snow  until  I  reached  James 
Maries's,  who  served  breakfast.  The  stage  wagon  came  up  again, 
when  we  went  on  through  the  Four-mile  woods,  stopping  to  see 
friends  and  spending  the  night  with  Russell  Goodrich.  On  Feb- 
ruary 29th  [two  years  and  twenty-four  days  from  the  date  of  set- 
ting out]  I  drove  into  Buffalo  on  Goodrich's  sleigh  and  went 
straight  to  Rathbun's,  where  I  met  a  great  number  of  friends, 
and  was  invited  to  take  a  ride  in  Rathbun's  fine  sleigh  with  four 
beautiful  greys.  We  drove  down  the  Niagara  as  far  as  Mrs. 
Seely's  and  upset  once. 

What  happier  climax  could  there  have  been  for  this 
happy  home-coming  ! 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 


MISADVENTURES  OF  ROBERT  MARSH. 


ROBERT  MARSH  claimed  American  citizenship, 
but  the  eventful  year  of  1837  found  him  on  the 
Canadian  side  of  the  Niagara  River.  His 
brother  was  a  baker  at  Chippewa,  and  Robert  drove  a 
cart,  laden  with  the  bakery  products,  back  and  forth 
between  the  neighboring  villages.  From  St.  Catha- 
rines to  Fort  Erie  he  dispensed  bread  and  crackers  and 
the  other  perhaps  not  wholly  harmless  ammunition  that 
was  moulded  in  that  Chippewa  bakery ;  and  he  natur- 
ally absorbed  the  ideas  and  the  sentiments  of  the  men 
he  met.  The  Niagara  district  was  at  fever  heat. 
Mackenzie  had  sown  his  Patriot  literature  broad- 
cast, and  what  with  real  and  imaginary  wrongs  the 
majority  of  the  community  sentiment  seemed  ripe  for 
rebellion. 

It  is  easy  enough  now,  as  one  reads  the  story  of  that 
uprising,  to  see  that  the  rebels  never  had  a  ghost  of  a 
chance.  The  grip  of  the  Government  never  was  in 
real  danger  of  being  thrown  off  in  the  upper  province  ; 
but  a  very  little  rebellion  looks  great  in  the  eyes  of 
the  rebel  who  hazards  his  neck  thereby ;  and  it  is  no 
wonder  that  Robert  Marsh  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  colonial  government  of  Canada  was  about  to  be 


196     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh. 

overthrown,  or  that  he  decided  to  cast  in  his  lot  with 
those  who  should  win  glory  in  the  cause  of  freedom. 
As  an  American  citizen  he  had  a  right  to  do  this. 
History  was  full  of  high  precedents.  Did  not  Eyron 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  Greeks  ?  Did  not  Lafayette 
make  his  name  immortal  in  the  ranks  of  American 
rebels?  One  part  of  America  had  lately  thrown  off 
the  hated  yoke  of  Great  Britain ;  why  should  not 
another  part  ?  So  our  cracker  peddler  reasoned ;  and 
reasoning  thus,  began  the  train  of  adventures  for  the 
narration  of  which  I  draw  in  brief  upon  his  own  ob- 
scure narrative.  It  is  a  story  that  leads  us  over  some 
strange  old  trails,  and  its  value  lies  chiefly  in  the  fact 
that  it  illustrates,  by  means  of  a  personal  experience,  a 
well-defined  period  in  the  history  of  the  Niagara 
region.  Robert  Marsh  is  hardly  an  ideal  hero,  but 
he  is  a  fair  type  of  a  class  who  contrived  greatly  to 
delude  themselves,  and  to  pay  roundly  for  their 
experience.  He  thought  as  many  others  thought ; 
what  he  adventured  was  also  adventured  by  many 
other  men  of  spirit ;  and  what  he  endured  before  he 
got  through  with  it  was  the  unhappy  lot  of  many  of 
his  fellows. 

It  was  a  time  of  great  discontent  and  discourage- 
ment on  both  sides  of  the  border.  Throughout  the 
Holland  Purchase  the  difficulties  over  land  titles  had 
reached  a  climax,  and  the  sheriff  and  his  deputies  en- 
forced the  law  at  the  risk  of  their  lives.  This  year  of 
1837  also  brought  the  financial  panic  which  is  still  a 
high-water  mark  of  hard  times  in  our  history.     Buffalo 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh,     197 

suffered  keenly,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  such  of  her 
young  men  as  had  a  drop  of  adventurous  blood  in  their 
veins  were  ready  to  turn  ' '  Patriot ' '  for  the  time  being  ; 
though  as  a  matter  of  sober  fact  it  must  be  recorded 
that  the  enthusiasm  of  the  majority  did  not  blind  their 
judgment  to  the  hopelessness  of  the  rebellion.  On 
the  Canadian  side  the  case  was  different.  Unlike  their 
American  brethren,  many  of  the  residents  there  felt 
that  they  had  not  a  representative  government.  It  is 
not  necessary  now,  nor  is  it  essential  to  our  story,  to 
rehearse  the  grievances  which  the  Canadian  Patriots 
undertook  to  correct  by  taking  up  arms  against  the 
established  authority.  They  are  presented  with  great 
elaboration  in  many  histories ;  they  are  detailed  with 
curious  ardor  in  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  a  docu- 
ment ostentatiously  patterned  after  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  William  Lyon  Mackenzie  was  a  long 
way  from  being  a  Thomas  Jefferson ;  yet  he  and  his 
associates  undertook  a  reform  which  —  taking  it  at 
their  valuation  —  was  as  truly  in  behalf  of  liberty  as 
was  the  work  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. They  made  the  same  appeal  to  justice ; 
argued  from  the  same  point  of  view  for  man's  inalien- 
able rights  j  they  were  temperate,  too,  in  their  de- 
mands, and  sought  liberty  without  bloodshed.  Yet 
while  the  American  patriots  were  enabled  to  persist 
and  win  their  cause,  though  after  two  bitter  and  ex- 
hausting wars,  their  Canadian  imitators  were  ignomin- 
iously  obliterated  in  a  few  weeks.  In  the  one  case  the 
cause  of  Liberty  won  her  brightest  star.     In  the  other. 


198     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 

there  is  complete  defeat,  without  a  monument  save  the 
derision  of  posterity. 

It  was  in  November  of  this  year  of  rebellion  1837 
that  Marsh,  being  at  Chippewa,  decided  to  cast  in  his 
lot  with  the  Patriots.  *'I  began  to  think,  "  he  says, 
'*  that  I  must  soon  become  an  actor  on  one  side- or  the 
other.  "  He  saw  the  Government  troops  patrolling 
every  inch  of  the  Canadian  bank  of  the  Niagara,  and 
concentrating  in  the  vicinity  of  Chippewa.  *'  Boats  of 
every  description  were  brought  from  different  parts ;  at 
the  same  time  they  were  mustering  all  their  cannon 
and  mortars  intending  to  drive  them  [the  Patriots]  off ; 
one  would  think  by  their  talk,  that  they  would  not 
only  kill  them  all,  but  with  their  cannon  mow  down 
all  the  trees,  and  what  the  balls  failed  in  hitting  the 
trees  would  fall  upon,  and  thus  demolish  the  whole 
Patriot  army. ' '  Our  hero's  observations  have  this  pecu- 
liar value  :  they  are  on  the  common  level.  He  heard 
the  boasts  and  braggadocio  of  the  common  soldier ; 
the  diplomatic  or  guarded  speech  of  officers  and  offi- 
cials he  did  not  record.  He  heard  all  about  the  plot 
to  seize  the  Caroline,  and  could  not  believe  it  at  first. 
But,  he  says,  ''when  I  beheld  the  men  get  in  the  boats 
and  shove  off  and  the  beacon  lights  kindled  on  the 
shore,  that  they  might  the  more  safely  find  the  way 
back,  my  eyes  were  on  the  stretch,  towards  where  the 
ill-fated  boat  lay.  "  When  he  saw  the  party  return 
and  heard  them  boast  of  what  they  had  done,  he 
thought  it  high  time  for  him  to  leave  the  place. 
**  Judge  my  feelings,"  he  says,    *'on  beholding  this 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.      199 

boat  on  fire,  perhaps  some  on  board,  within  two  short 
miles  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  going  at  the  rate  of 
twelve  miles  an  hour. "  ^ 

The  Caroline  was  burned  on  the  29th  of  December. 
On  the  next  day  our  hero  and  a  friend  set  out  to  join 
the  Patriots.  Let  me  quote  in  condensed  fashion  from 
his  narrative,  which  is  a  tolerably  graphic  contribution 
to  the  history  of  this  famous  episode  : 

*  *  We  succeeded  in  reaching  the  river  six  miles  above 
Chippewa  about  11  o'clock  in  the  evening,  after  a 
tedious  and  dangerous  journey  through  an  extensive 
swamp.  There  is  a  small  settlement  in  a  part  of  this 
swamp  which  has  been  called  Sodom.  There  were 
many  Indians  prowling  about.  We  managed  to  evade 
them  but  with  much  difficulty.  There  were  sentinels 
every  few  rods  along  the  line. ' '  A  friendly  woman  at  a 
farmhouse  let  them  take  a  boat.  They  offered  her 
$5  for  its  use,  but  she  declined ;  **she  said  she  would 
not  take  anything  ...  as  she  knew  our  situation 
and  felt  anxious  to  do  all  in  her  power  to  help  us  across 
the  river ;  she  also  told  us  that  her  husband  had  taken 
Mackenzie  across  a  few  nights  previous.  *  Leave  the 
boat  in  the  mouth  of  the  creek,'  said  she,  pointing 


^  In  one  Canadian  work,  John  Charles  Dent's  "  Story  of  the  Upper  Cana- 
dian Rebellion,"  statements  are  printed  to  show  that  the  Caroline  did  not 
fo  over  the  falls,  but  that  her  hull  sank  in  shallow  water  not  far  below  the 
chlosser  landing.  There  is  however  a  mass  of  evidence  to  other  effect. 
It  is  striking  that  so  sensational  an  episode,  happening  within  the  memory 
of  many  men  yet  living,  should  be  thus  befogged.  The  contemporary 
accounts  which  were  published  in  American  newspapers  were  wildly 
exaggerated,  one  report  making  the  loss  of  life  exceed  ninety.  (There 
was  but  one  man  killed.)  Mackenzie  himself  is  said  to  have  spread  these 
extravagant  reports.  He  had  a  gift  for  the  sort  of  journalism  which  in 
this  later  day  is  called  "  yellow,"  a  chief  iniquity  of  which  is  its  wanton 
perversion  of  contemporary  record,  and  the  ultimate  confusion  of  history. 


200     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 

across  the  river  towards  Grand  Island,  ...  *  there 
is  a  man  there  that  will  fetch  it  back,  you  have  only 
to  fasten  it,  say  nothing  and  go  your  way. '  We  were 
convinced  that  we  were  not  the  only  ones  assisted  by 
this  patriotic  lady." 

Marsh  and  his  companion,  whose  surname  was 
Thomas,  launched  the  boat  with  much  difficulty,  and 
with  muffled  oars  they  rowed  across  to  Grand  Island. 
"  It  was  about  1  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  we  had  to 
go  eight  or  nine  miles  through  the  woods  and  no  road. 
There  had  been  a  light  fall  of  snow,  and  in  places 
[was]  ice  that  would  bear  a  man,  but  oftener  would 
not ;  once  or  twice  in  crossing  streams  the  ice  gave 
way  and  we  found  ourselves  nearly  to  the  middle  in 
water."  Our  patriot's  path,  the  reader  will  note,  was 
hard  from  the  outset,  but  he  kept  on,  expecting  to  be 
with  his  friends  again  in  a  few  days,  and  little  dream- 
ing of  what  lay  ahead  of  him.  *'  We  at  near  daylight 
succeeded  in  reaching  White  Haven,  a  small  village, 
where  we  were  hailed  by  one  of  our  militia  sentinels  : 
*  Who  comes  there  ?  '  '  Friends. '  '  Advance  and  give 
the  countersign.'  Of  course  we  advanced,  but  we 
could  not  give  the  countersign ;  a  guard  was  immedi- 
ately dispatched  with  us  to  headquarters,  where  we 
underwent  a  strict  examination. ' ' 

He  was  sent  across  to  Tonawanda,  where  he  took 
the  cars  for  Schlosser.  There  the  blood-stains  on  the 
dock  where  Durfee  had  been  killed  sealed  his  resolu- 
tion ;  he  crossed  to  Navy  Island  and  presented  himself 
at  the  headquarters  of  William  Lyon  Mackenzie,  the 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     201 

peppery  little  Scotchman  who  was  the  prime  organizer 
of  the  Provisional  Government,  and  of  General  Van 
Rensselaer,  commander-in-chief  of  the  Patriot  Army. 
*'The  General  produced  the  list  and  asked  me  the 
length  of  time  I  wished  to  enlist.  I  was  so  confident 
of  success  that  I  unhesitatingly  replied,  '  Seven  years 
or  during  the  war.'  The  General  remarked,  '  I  wish 
I  had  2,000  such  men,  we  have  about  1,000  already,* 
and  I  think  this  Caroline  affair  will  soon  swell  our  force 
to  2,000,  and  then  I  shall  make  an  attack  at  some 
point  where  they  least  expect,  .  .  .  and  as  you  are 
well  acquainted  there  I  want  you  to  be  by  my  side.'  " 
Here  was  preferment  indeed,  for  Marsh  believed  that 
Van  Rensselaer  was  brave  and  able  ;  history  has  a 
different  verdict ;  but  we  must  assume  that  our  hero 
entered  upon  the  campaign  with  high  hopes  and  who 
knows  what  visions  of  glory. 

Now,  at  the  risk  of  tiresomeness,  I  venture  to  dwell 
a  little  longer  on  this  occupancy  of  Navy  Island  ;  I 
promise  to  get  over  ground  faster  farther  along  in  the 
story.  It  is  assumed  that  the  reader  knows  the  princi- 
pal facts  of  this  familiar  episode  ;  but  in  Marsh's  jour- 
nal I  find  graphic  details  of  the  affair  not  elsewhere 
given,  to  my  knowledge.  Let  me  quote  from  his 
obscure  record : 

After  my  informing  the  General  of  their  preparations  and  inten- 
tion of  attacking  the  Island,  breastworks  were  hastily  thrown  up, 


1  By  the  end  of  December,  1837,  about  600  men  had  resorted  to  Navy- 
Island  in  the  guise  of  "  Patriots."  Although  this  number  was  later 
somewhat  increased,  the  entire  "army"  at  that  point  probably  never 
numbered  1,000. 


202     MisadvenHcres  of  Robert  Marsh. 

and  all  necessary  arrangements  made  to  give  them  a  warm  recep- 
tion. There  were  twenty-five  cannon,  mostly  well  mounted, 
which  could  easily  be  concentrated  at  any  point  required  ;  and 
manned  by  men  that  knew  how  to  handle  them.  Besides  other 
preparations,  tops  of  trees  and  underbrush  were  thrown  over  the 
bank  at  different  places  to  prevent  them  landing.  I  know  there 
were  various  opinions  respecting  the  strength  of  the  Island,  but 
from  close  observation,  during  these  days  of  my  enlistment,  it  is 
my  candid  opinion  that  if  they  had  attacked  the  Island,  as  was 
expected,  they  would  mostly  or ,  all  have  found  a  watery  grave. 
The  tories  were  fearful  of  this,  for  when  the  attempt  was  made 
men  could  not  be  found  to  hazard  their  lives  in  so  rash  an 
attempt.     .     .     . 

It  was  hoped  and  much  regretted  by  all  on  the  Island  that  the 
attempt  was  not  made  ;  for  if  they  had  done  so  it  would  have 
thinned  their  ranks  and  made  it  the  more  easy  for  us  to  have  en- 
tered Canada  at  that  place.  They  finally  concluded  to  bring  all 
their  artillery  to  bear  upon  us,  and  thus  exterminate  all  within 
their  reach.  They  were  accordingly  arranged  in  martial  pomp, 
opposite  the  Island,  the  distance  of  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile. 
Now  the  work  of  destruction  commences  j  the  balls  and  bombs 
fly  in  all  directions.  The  tops  of  the  trees  appear  to  be  a  great 
eye-sore  to  them.  I  suppose  they  thought  by  commencing  an 
attack  upon  them,  their  falling  would  aid  materially  in  the  de- 
struction of  lives  below. 

Robert,  the  reader  will  have  observed,  had  a  fine 
gift  of  sarcasm.  The  thundering  of  artillery  was 
heard,  by  times,  he  says,  for  twenty  and  thirty  miles 
around,  for  a  week,  ''  [the  enemy]  being  obliged  to 
cease  firing  at  times  for  her  cannons  to  cool.  They 
were  very  lavish  with  Her  Gracious  Majesty's  powder 
and  balls. ' '     He  continues  : 

I  recollect  a  man  standing  behind  the  breastwork  where  were 
four  of  us  sitting  as  the  balls  were  whistling  through  the  trees. 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     203 

♦*Well,"  says  he,  <*if  this  is  the  way  to  kill  the  timber  on  this 
island,  it  certainly  is  a  very  expensive  way  as  well  as  somewhat 
comical ;  I  should  think  it  would  be  cheaper  to  come  over  with 
axes,  and  if  they  are  not  in  too  big  a  hurry,  girdle  the  trees  and 
they  will  die  the  sooner."  I  remarked  :  "They  did  not  know 
how  to  use  an  axe,  but  understood  girdling  in  a  different  way." 
An  old  gentleman  from  Canada  taking  the  hint  quickly  responded, 
"Yes.  Canada  can  testify  to  the  fact  of  their  having  other  ways 
of  girdling  besides  with  the  axe,  and  unless  there  is  a  speedy  stop 
put  to  it,  there  will  not  be  a  green  tree  left."  There  was  another 
gentleman  about  to  say  something  of  their  manner  of  swindling 
in  other  parts  of  the  world,  he  had  just  commenced  about  Ireland 
when  I  felt  a  sudden  jar  at  my  back,  and  the  other  three  that  set 
near  me  did  the  same  ;  we  rose  up  and  discovered  that  a  cannon 
ball  had  found  its  way  through  our  breastwork,  but  was  kind 
enough  to  stop  after  just  stirring  the  dirt  at  our  backs.  I  had 
only  moved  about  an  inch  of  dirt  when  I  picked  up  a  six-pound 
ball. 

As  it  happened,  our  gun  was  a  six-pounder.  We  concluded, 
as  that  was  the  only  ball  that  had  as  yet  been  willing  to  pay  us  a 
visit,  we  would  send  it  back  as  quick  as  it  come.  We  immediately 
put  it  into  our  gun  and  wheeled  around  the  corner  of  the  breast- 
work. "Hold,"  said  I,  "there  is  Queen  Ann's  Pocket  Piece,  as 
it  is  called,  it  will  soon  be  opposite,  and  then  we'll  show  them 
what  we  can  do."  It  was  not  mounted,  but  swung  under  the  ex 
[axle]  of  a  cart,  such  as  are  used  for  drawing  saw- logs,  with  very 
large  wheels.  I  had  seen  it  previous  to  my  leaving  Chippewa. 
I  think  there  was  six  horses  attached  to  the  cart,  for  it  was  very 
heavy,  it  being  a  twenty-four-pounder.  I  suppose  it  was  their 
intention  to  split  the  Island  in  two  with  it,  hoping  by  so  doing  it 
might  loosen  at  the  roots  and  move  off  with  the  current  and  go 
over  the  falls,  and  thus  accomplish  their  great  work  of  destruction 
at  once.  As  they  were  opposite,  the  words  "ready,  fire,"  were 
given ;  we  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  horses  leave  the 
battleground  with  all  possible  speed.  The  gun  was  forsaken  in 
no  time,  and  in  less  than  five  minutes  there  was  scarcely  a  man  to 


204     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 

be  seen.  The  ball  had  gone  about  three  feet  further  to  the  left 
than  had  been  intended  ;  it  was  intended  to  lop  the  wheels,  but  it 
severed  the  tongue  from  the  ex  and  the  horses  took  the  liberty  to 
move  off  as  fast  as  possible. 

We  were  about  to  give  them  another  shot,  when  the  officer  ot 
the  day  came  up  and  told  us  the  orders  from  headquarters  were 
not  to  fire  unless  it  was  absolutely  necessary,  that  we  must  be 
saving  of  our  ammunition.  I  told  him  that  it  was  their  own  ball 
that  we  had  just  sent  back.  When  he  saw  the  execution  it  had 
done  he  smiled  and  went  on,  remarking,  "They  begin  to  fire  a 
little  lower."  "Yes,"  said  I,  "and  as  that  was  the  first,  we 
thought  we  would  send  it  back  and  let  them  know  we  did  not 
want  it,  that  we  had  balls  of  our  own." 

This  incident  was  the  beginning  of  more  active  opera- 
tions. For  the  next  nine  days  and  nights  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  firing,  with  one  killed  and  three  wounded. 
The  Patriot  army  held  on  to  its  absurd  stronghold  for 
four  weeks,  causing,  as  Marsh  quaintly  puts  it,  **much 
noise  and  confusion  on  both  sides";  and  he  at  least 
was  keenly  disappointed  when  it  was  evacuated,  Jan. 
12,  1838.  The  handful  of  Patriots  scattered  and 
Chippewa  composed  herself  to  the  repose  which,  but 
for  one  ripple  of  disturbance  in  1866,  continues  to  the 
present  day. 

Up  to  the  end  of  this  abortive  campaign  Robert 
Marsh's  chief  misadventure  had  been  to  cut  himself  off, 
practically,  from  a  safe  return  to  the  community  where 
his  best  interests  lay.  But  he  had  a  stout  heart  if  a 
perverse  head.  **I  was  born  of  Patriot  parentage,  " 
he  boasted;  **  I  am  not  a  Patriot  today  and  tomorrow 
the  reverse";  and  being  fairly  identified  with  the 
rebels,  he  determined  to  woo  the  fortunes  of  war  wher- 


Mis  adventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     205 

ever  opportunity  offered.  His  ardor  must  have  been 
considerable,  for  he  made  his  way  in  the  dead  of  win- 
ter from  Buffalo  to  Detroit ;  just  how  I  do  not  know  ; 
but  he  speaks  of  arriving  at  Sandusky  *  *  after  a  tedious 
walk  of  five  days.  "  Here  he  joined  a  party  for  an 
attack  on  Maiden,  but  the  Patriots  were  themselves 
attacked  by  some  300  Canadian  troops  who  came  across 
the  lake  in  sleighs ;  there  was  a  lively  fight  on  the  ice, 
with  some  loss  of  life,  when  each  party  was  glad  to 
retire.  Next  he  tried  it  with  a  band  of  rebels  on 
Fighting  Island,  below  Detroit;  treachery  and  '*the 
power  of  British  gold  ' '  seem  to  have  kept  Canada  from 
falling  into  their  hands  ;  and  presently,  ^'  being  sick  of 
island  fighting,"  as  he  puts  it,  he  made  his  way  to 
Detroit,  where,  all  through  that  troubled  summer  of 
'38,  he  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  active 
and  ardent  of  the  plotters.  Certain  it  is  that  he  was 
promptly  to  the  front  for  the  battle  of  Windsor,  and 
was  with  the  invaders  on  Dec.  4,  1838,  when  a  band 
of  164  misguided  men  crossed  the  Detroit  River  to  take 
Canada.  He  was  *'  Lieutenant ' '  Marsh  on  this  expedi- 
tion, but  it  was  the  emptiest  of  honors.  At  four  in  the 
morning  they  attacked  the  barracks  on  the  river  banks 
above  Windsor,  and,  as  often  happens  with  the  most 
fatuous  enterprises,  met  at  the  outset  with  success. 
They  burned  the  barracks  and  took  thirty-eight  prison- 
ers (whom  they  could  not  hold),  looking  meanwhile 
across  the  river  for  help  which  never  came.  *  *  We 
were  about  planting  our  standard, ' '  wrote  Marsh  after- 
ward ;  *'  the  flag  was  a  splendid  one,  with  two  stars  for 


2o6     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh. 

Upper  and  Lower  Canada.  We  had  just  succeeded  in 
getting  a  long  spar  and  was  in  the  act  of  raising  it,  as 
the  cry  was  heard,  —  '  There  comes  the  Red-coats  ! 
There  are  the  dragoons  !  '  "  Our  Patriot,  it  will  be  ob- 
served, made  no  nice  distinctions  between  British  and 
Canadian  troops ;  that  distinction  will  not  fail  to  be 
made  for  him,  in  a  province  which  has  always  claimed 
the  honor  —  to  which  it  is  fully  entitled  —  of  putting 
down  this  troublesome  uprising  without  having  to  call 
for  help  upon  the  British  regulars.  But  the  invaders 
did  not  raise  nice  points  then.  They  hastily  formed 
and  withstood  the  attack  for  a  little  ;  but  it  was  a  hope- 
less stand,  for  numbers  and  discipline  were  all  on  the 
other  side.  According  to  Marsh,  the  regulars  num- 
bered 600.  There  was  sharp  firing,  eleven  Patriots  and 
forty-four  Canadians  were  killed ;  and  seeing  this,  and 
learning,  later  than  his  friends  across  the  river,  that 
discretion  is  the  better  part  of  valor,  he  did  the  only 
thing  that  remained  to  do  —  he  took  to  the  woods. 

The  woods  were  full  just  then  of  discreet  Patriots, 
and  several  of  them  held  a  breathless  council  of  war. 
Here  is  Marsh's  account  of  it : 

It  was  finally  concluded  for  every  man  to  do  the  best  he  could 
for  himself.  We  accordingly  separated  and  I  found  myself  pur- 
sued by  a  man  hollowing  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  "Stop  there, 
stop,  you  damned  rebel,  or  I'll  shoot  you  !  stop,  stop  ! "  I  was 
near  a  fence  at  that  time  crossing  a  field.  I  proceeded  to  the 
fence,  dropped  on  one  knee,  put  my  rifle  through  the  fence,  took 
deliberate  aim.  He  had  a  gun  and  was  gaining  on  me.  I  had  a 
cannister  of  powder,  pouch  of  balls,  two  pistols  and  an  overcoat 
on,  which  prevented  me  from  attempting  to  run.     I  saw  all  hopes 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     207 

of  escape  was  useless  ;  I  discharged  my  rifle,  but  cannot  say 
whether  it  hit  the  mark  or  not,  for  I  did  not  look,  but  immediately 
rose  and  walked  off.  At  any  rate  I  heard  no  more  "  Stop  there, 
you  damned  rebel." 

Marsh's  narrative  is  too  diffuse,  not  to  mention 
other  faults,  for  me  to  follow  it  verbatim  et  {il-')liieratim. 
I  give  the  events  of  the  next  few  days  as  simply  as  pos- 
sible. After  he  fired  his  gun  through  the  fence  at  the 
red -coat  who  followed  no  more — his  last  shot,  be  it 
remarked,  for  the  relief  of  Canada  —  he  found  that  he 
was  very  tired.  It  was  late  in  the  day  of  the  battle  and 
he  had  eaten  nothing  for  nearly  forty-eight  hours. 
Pushing  on  through  the  woods  he  came  to  a  barn,  but 
had  scarcely  entered  when  it  was  surrounded  by  ten  or 
twelve  **  dragoons,"  as  he  calls  them.  He  scrambled 
up  a  ladder  to  the  hay-mow,  dug  a  hole  in  the  hay, 
crawled  in  and  smoothed  it  over  himself,  and,  he  says, 
*'had  just  got  a  pistol  in  each  hand  as  the  door  flew 
open  ;  in  they  rushed,  crying,  '  Come  out,  you  damned 
rebel,  we'll  shoot  you,  we'll  not  take  you  before  the 
Colonel  to  be  shot,  come  out,  come  out,  we'll  hang 
you.'  Said  another,  '■  We'll  quarter  you  and  feed  you 
to  the  hogs  as  we've  just  served  one  !  '  They  thrust 
their  swords  into  the  hay,  and  threatened  to  burn  the 
barn;  but  as  it  belonged  to  one  of  their  sort,  they 
thought  better  of  it  and  went  off.  They  soon  came 
back,  and  saying  they  would  place  a  sentry,  disappeared 
again."  Marsh  tore  up  certain  papers  which  he  feared 
would  be  troublesome  if  found  on  him  and  then  slept. 
It  was  dark  when  he  awoke.     He  crept  out  of  the  barn 


2o8     Mtsadventures  of  Robert  Marsh. 

and  wandered  through  the  woods  until  daylight,  nar- 
rowly escaping  some  Indians.  He  applied  at  the 
house  of  a  French  settler  for  something  to  eat ;  frankly 
admitting,  what  it  obviously  was  folly  to  deny,  that 
he  was  a  fugitive.  Three  *  Marge  bony  Frenchmen" 
came  to  the  door,  made  him  their  prisoner  and  marched 
him  off  through  the  woods  to  Sandwich,  where  he  was 
stripped  of  his  valuables  and  locked  up  with  several 
others,  his  captors  cheerfully  assuring  them  that  they 
would  have  a  fine  shooting-match  tomorrow.  Marsh 
stoutly  maintained  that,  as  he  owed  the  Queen  no 
allegiance,  he  was  not  a  rebel ;  but  his  protests  did  him 
no  good.  He  was  not  shot  on  the  morrow,  although 
others  of  the  captives  were  summarily  executed,  without 
a  pretext  of  trial  or  even  a  chance  to  say  their  prayers. 
And  now  begins  an  imprisonment  of  ten  months  full 
of  such  distress  and  atrocity  that  I  should  not  please, 
however  much  I  might  edify,  by  its  recital.  We  read 
today  of  the  horrors  of  Spanish  and  Turkish  massacres 
or  of  Siberian  prisons,  and  every  page  of  history  has 
its  record  of  inhumanity  —  its  Black  Hole,  its  Dart- 
moor, its  Andersonville.  In  this  dishonor  roll  of 
official  outrages  surely  may  be  included  the  backwoods 
prisons  of  Upper  Canada  in  1838  and  '39.  Our  mis- 
adventurer  was  shifted  from  one  to  another.  At  Fort 
Maiden,  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  he  was  kept  for 
seven  weeks  in  a  small  room  with  twenty-eight  other 
men.  It  was  the  dead  of  winter,  but  they  had  no 
warmth  save  from  their  emaciated  and  vermin-infested 
bodies.     They  were  ironed    two   and    two,    day   and 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     209 

night.  They  were  so  crowded  that  there  was  not  floor- 
room  for  all  to  sleep  at  once.  According  to  Marsh, 
who  afterwards  wrote  a  minute  record  of  this  imprison- 
ment, their  feeding  and  care  would  have  been  fatal  to 
a  herd  of  hogs.  The  acme  of  the  miseries  of  the  prison 
at  Fort  Maiden  I  cannot  even  hint  at  with  propriety. 
When  transferred  from  Sandwich  to  Maiden,  and  later 
from  Maiden  to  London,  Marsh,  like  many  of  his  fel- 
low sufferers,  had  his  feet  frozen ;  and  when  his  limbs 
swelled  so  that  life  itself  was  threatened,  it  was  not  the 
surgeon  but  a  clumsy  blacksmith  who  cut  off  the  irons 
and  supplied  new  ones. 

In  London  the  treatment  of  Maiden  was  repeated. 
Here  the  trials  began.  The  gallows  was  erected  close 
to  the  jail  wall ;  day  by  day  the  doomed  ones  walked 
out  of  a  door  in  the  second  story  to  the  death  platform ; 
and  day  by  day  Marsh  and  the  other  wretches  in  the 
cells  heard  the  drop  as  it  swung,  in  falling,  against  the 
jail  wall.  Marsh  lived  in  hourly  expectation  of  the 
summons,  but  before  his  turn  came  there  was  a  stay  in 
the  work  which  had  been  going  on  under  the  warrants 
signed  by  Sir  George  Arthur  —  as  great  a  tyrant,  prob- 
ably, as  ever  held  power  on  the  American  continent. 
A  far  more  philosophic  writer  than  Robert  Marsh  has 
called  him  the  Robespierre  of  Canada.  Whatever 
may  be  held  as  to  the  illegality  of  the  trials  which  sent 
some  twenty-five  men  to  the  gallows  at  this  time,  cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  hangings  stopped  before  our  hero's 
neck  was  stretched.  Fate  still  had  her  quiver  full  of 
evil  days  for  him ;  and  fortune,  like  a  gleam  of  sun 


2IO     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh. 

between  clouds,  moved  him  on  to  the  prison  at  Toronto, 
where  his  mother  came  to  see  him. 

It  was  in  the  early  spring  of  1839  that  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Toronto.  In  June  following,  with  a  boat- 
load of  companions,  he  was  shipped  down  to  Fort 
Henry  at  Kingston.  Here,  for  three  months,  he  was 
deluded  with  the  constant  expectation  of  release ;  but 
he  must  have  had  some  foreshadowings  of  his  fate 
when,  after  three  months  of  wretched  existence  at  Fort 
Henry,  he  was  again  sent  on,  down  the  river  to  Quebec  ; 
and  there,  on  September  28,  1839,  he  and  137  com- 
panions in  irons  were  put  aboard  the  British  prison- 
ship  Buffalo,  commanded  by  Capt.  Wood.  They  were 
stowed  on  the  third  deck,  below  the  water  line ;  140 
sailors  were  placed  over  them ;  and  the  Buffalo  took 
her  course  down  the  widening  gulf.  The  dismal 
departure  was  lightened  by  a  touch  of  human  nature. 
There  were  several  of  the  convicts  who,  like  Marsh, 
claimed  American  citizenship,  and  American  blood 
will  show  itself.'  As  the  prisoners  were  marched  down 
with  clanking  chains  from  Fort  Henry  for  the  shipment 
to  Quebec,  many  of  them  thought  that  it  was  their 
last  shift  before  release.      ^' There  were  three  or  four 


^  There  were  about  150  Patriots,  claiming-  to  be  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  who  were  taken  prisoners  in  Upper  Canada,  and  transported  to 
Van  Dieman's  Land.  Among  those  taken  near  Windsor,  besides  Marsh, 
were  Ezra  Horton,  Joseph  Horton  and  John  Simons  of  Buffalo,  John  W. 
Simmons  and  Truman  Woodbury  of  Lockport.  Taken  at  Windmill  Point, 
near  Prescott,  was  Asa  M.  Richardson  of  Buffalo.  Taken  at  Short  Hills, 
Welland  Co.,  was  Linus  W.  Miller  of  Chautauqua  Co.,  who  afterwards 
wrote  a  book  on  the  rebellion  and  his  exile  ;  and  Benjamin  Waite,  whose 
"Letters  from  Van  Dieman's  Land''  were  published  in  Buffalo  in  1843. 
Waite  died  at  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  Nov.  9,  1895,  aged  eighty-two.  It  is 
not  unlikely  that  some  Americans  who  underwent  that  exile  are  still  liv- 
ing. I  have  seen  no  list  of  Americans  captured  during  the  outbreak  in 
Lower  Canada. 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsk. 


21  I 


very  good  singers  amongst  us/*  says  Maish,  **  which 
made  the  fort  ring  with  the  *  American  Star/  *  Hunt- 
ers of  Kentucky  *  and  other  similar  songs,  which  caused 
many  to  flock  to  our  windows.  Some  of  them  re- 
marked, *You  will  not  feel  like  singing  in  Botany 
Bay.'  *  Give  us  **  Botany  Bay,**  *  said  one,  and  it  was 
done  in  good  style.** 

If  the  reader  will  permit  the  digression,  it  may 
a^ord  a  little  entertainment  to  consider  for  a  moment 
these  old  songs.  The  literature  of  every  war  includes 
its  patriotic  songs  —  seldom  the  work  of  great  poets, 
and  most  popular  when  they  appeal  to  the  quick  sym- 
pathies and  sense  of  humor  of  the  common  people. 
Every  people  has  such  songs,  sometimes  cherished  and 
sung  for  generations.  England  has  them  without 
number,  Canada  has  hers,  the  United  States  has  hers ; 
and  among  the  most  popular  for  many  years,  strange  as 
it  now  may  seem,  were  "The  American  Star**  and 
**The  Hunters  of  Kentucky,**  which  were  sung  by 
these  none-too-worthy  representatives  of  the  United 
States,  through  Canadian  prison  bars,  this  autumn 
morning  sixty  years  ago.  Both  songs  had  their  origin, 
i  believe,  at  the  time  of  the  War  of  1812,  That  such 
barren  and  bombastic  lines  as  **  The  American  Star  ** 
should  have  remained  popular  a  quarter  of  a  century 
seems  incredible,  and  appears  to  indicate  that  the  youth 
of  the  country  were  very  hard  up  for  patriotic  songs 
worth  singing.     Here  follows  **  The  American  Star**: 

Come,  strike  the  bold  anthem,  the  ^rar  dogs  arc  howUng, 
Already  they  eagerly  snoff  up  their  prey. 


212     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 

The  red  clouds  of  war  o'er  our  forests  are  scowling, 
Soft  peace  spreads  her  wings  and  flies  weeping  away ; 

The  infants,  affrighted,  cling  close  to  their  mothers, 
The  youths  grasp  their  swords,  for  the  combat  prepare, 

While  beauty  weeps  fathers,  and  lovers  and  brothers, 
Who  rush  to  display  the  American  Star. 

Come  blow  the  shrill  bugle,  the  loud  drum  awaken. 

The  dread  rifle  seize,  let  the  cannon  deep  roar ; 
No  heart  with  pale  fear,  or  faint  doubtings  be  shaken, 

No  slave's  hostile  foot  leave  a  print  on  our  shore. 
Shall  mothers,  wives,  daughters  and  sisters  left  weeping, 

Insulted  by  ruffians,  be  dragged  to  despair  ! 
Oh  no  !  from  her  hills  the  proud  eagle  comes  sweeping 

And  waves  to  the  brave  the  American  Star. 

The  spirits  of  Washington,  Warren,  Montgomery, 

Look  down  from  the  clouds  with  bright  aspect  serene  ; 
Come,  soldiers,  a  tear  and  a  toast  to  their  memory. 

Rejoicing  they'll  see  us  as  they  once  have  been. 
To  us  the  high  boon  by  the  gods  has  been  granted. 

To  speed  the  glad  tidings  of  liberty  far  ; 
Let  millions  invade  us,  we'll  meet  them  undaunted. 

And  vanquish  them  by  the  American  Star. 

Your  hands,  then,  dear  comrades,  round  Liberty's  altar, 

United  we  swear  by  the  souls  of  the  brave 
Not  one  from  the  strong  resolution  shall  falter. 

To  live  independent,  or  sink  to  the  grave  ! 
Then,  freemen,  fill  up  —  Lo,  the  striped  banner's  flying. 

The  high  bird  of  liberty  screams  through  the  air ; 
Beneath  her  oppression  and  tyranny  dying  — 

Success  to  the  beaming  American  Star. 

Every  one  of  its  turgid  and  wordy  lines  bespeaks  the 
struggling  infancy  of  a  National  literature.  **The 
Hunters  of  Kentucky  "  is  a  little  better,  because  it  has 
humor — though  of  the  primitive  backwoods  type — in  it. 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh,     2 1 3 

If  the  reader  has  not  heard  it  lately,  perhaps  he  can 
stand  a  little  of  it.  It  was  inspired  by  the  battle  of 
New  Orleans  : 

Ye  gentlemen  and  ladies  fair, 

"Who  grace  this  famous  city, 
Just  listen,  if  you've  time  to  spare, 

While  I  rehearse  a  ditty  ; 
And  for  the  opportunity 

Conceive  yourselves  quite  lucky. 
For  'tis  not  often  that  you  see 

A  hunter  from  Kentucky  ; 
O  !  Kentucky, 

The  hunters  of  Kentucky. 

We  are  a  hardy  free-born  race. 

Each  man  to  fear  a  stranger  ; 
Whate'er  the  game,  we  join  in  chase. 

Despising  toil  and  danger  ; 
And  if  a  daring  foe  annoys, 

Whate'er  his  strength  or  force  is. 
We'll  show  him  that  Kentucky  boys 

Are  alligators, — horses: 
O  !  Kentucky,  etc. 

I  s'pose  you've  read  it  in  the  prints. 

How  Packenham  attempted 
To  make  Old  Hickory  Jackson  wince. 

But  soon  his  schemes  repented ; 
For  we,  with  rifles  ready  cock'd. 

Thought  such  occasion  lucky. 
And  soon  around  the  general  flock'd 

The  hunters  of  Kentucky  : 
O  !  Kentucky,  etc. 

I  s'pose  you've  heard  how  New  Orleans 
Is  famed  for  wealth  and  beauty ; 


214     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 

There's  gals  of  every  hue,  it  seems, 

From  snowy  white  to  sooty  : 
So,  Packenham  he  made  his  brags 

If  he  in  fight  was  lucky. 
He'd  have  their  gals  and  cotton  bags. 

In  spite  of  Old  Kentucky  : 
O  !  Kentucky,  etc. 

But  Jackson  he  was  wide  awake, 

And  wasn't  scared  at  trifles. 
For  well  he  knew  what  aim  we  take 

With  our  Kentucky  rifles  ; 
So,  he  led  us  down  to  Cypress  Swamp, 

The  ground  was  low  and  mucky  ; 
There  stood  John  Bull  in  martial  pomp  — 

But  here  was  Old  Kentucky  : 
O  !  Kentucky,  etc. 

We  raised  a  bank  to  hide  our  breasts, 

Not  that  we  thought  of  dying, 
But  then  we  always  like  to  rest, 

Unless  the  game  is  flying  ; 
Behind  it  stood  our  little  force  — 

None  wish'd  it  to  be  greater, 
For  every  man  was  half  a  horse 

And  half  an  alligator  : 
O  !  Kentucky,  etc. 

They  didn't  let  our  patience  tire 

Before  they  show'd  their  faces  ; 
We  didn't  choose  to  waste  our  fire. 

But  snugly  kept  our  places  ; 
And  when  so  near  we  saw  them  wink. 

We  thought  it  time  to  stop  'em, 
It  would  have  done  you  good,  I  think. 

To  see  Kentuckians  drop  'em  : 
O  !  Kentucky,  etc. 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     2 1 5 

They  found,  at  length,  'twas  vain  to  fight, 

When  lead  was  all  their  booty, 
And  so,  they  wisely  took  to  flight, 

And  left  us  all  the  beauty. 
And  now,  if  danger  e'er  annoys, 

Remember  what  our  trade  is  ; 
Just  send  for  us  Kentucky  boys, 

And  we'll  protect  you,  ladies  : 
O  !  Kentucky,  etc. 

At  least  it  has  a  gallant  ending,  which  was  not  alto- 
gether apposite  to  the  situation  of  Marsh  and  his  fellow- 
prisoners  at  Kingston.  **  Botany  Bay"  was  more  in 
their  line  just  then  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  it  was  just  as 
philosophic  to  go  into  exile  singing  as  mourning  or 
cursing. 

Were  I  a  Herman  Melville  or  a  Clark  Russell  I 
should  be  tempted  to  dwell  on  this  dreary  voyage  of 
the  prison -ship  Buffalo.  Even  Marsh's  humble  chron- 
icle of  it  is  graphic  with  unstudied  incidents.  They 
ran  into  rough  weather  at  once  ;  so  that  to  the  wretch- 
edness of  their  imprisonment  was  added  the  misery  of 
seasickness.  No  one  had  told  them  of  their  destina- 
tion, and  many  of  them,  like  Marsh,  stoutly  maintained 
from  first  to  last  that  they  were  transported  without  a 
sentence.  Their  daily  life  in  this  dark  and  crowded 
'tween-decks,  practically  the  hold  of  a  staggering  old 
sailer,  could  not  be  detailed  without  offense ;  and  if  it 
could  be,  I  have  no  desire  to  heap  up  the  horrors.  In 
mid-voyage  there  was  an  attempted  mutiny  ;  the  con- 
victs tried  to  seize  the  ship ;  but  the  only  result  was 
heavier  irons,  closer  confinement,  and  a  stricter  guard. 


2i6     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 

After  two  months  of  the  stormy  Atlantic  the  Buffalo 
put  into  Rio  Janeiro,  where  she  lay  three  tantalizing 
days.  ''It  happened  to  be  the  Emperor's  birthday," 
says  Marsh,  ''and  although  we  were  not  allowed  to  go 
on  shore,  we  could  discover  through  a  skylight  the  flags 
on  the  pinnacles  of  houses  and  hills  apparently  reach- 
ing to  the  clouds. ' '  A  little  fruit  was  had  aboard  to 
allay  the  scurvy  which  was  making  havoc,  and  the 
Buffalo  lumbered  away  again  and  ran  straight  into  a 
savage  gale,  in  which  she  sprung  a  bad  leak.  She  was 
an  old  ship,  and  had  formerly  been  a  man-of-war,  but 
for  some  years  now  had  been  employed  as  a  convict 
transport  between  England  and  New  South  Wales. 
From  Rio  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  the  log  kept 
by  Robert  Marsh  is  a  story  of  sickness  and  death. 
Those  who  had  had  their  limbs  frozen  in  Canada  now 
found  the  skin  and  flesh  coming  away  and  the  sea 
water  on  their  bare  feet  gave  them  excruciating  agony. 
The  shotted  sack  slid  into  the  shark-patrolled  waters  of 
the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  wretches  who  still  lived  were 
envious  of  the  dead.  And  on  the  13th  of  February, 
1840,  four  months  and  a  half  from  Quebec,  the  Buffalo 
anchored  in  Hobart  Town  harbor.  Van  Dieman's  Land. 
And  now  a  word  about  this  antipodean  land  on 
which  our  unlucky  hero  looked  out  from  the  prison - 
ship.  We  are  wont  to  regard  it,  perhaps,  as  a  new 
and  well-nigh  unknown  part  of  the  world ;  possibly 
some  of  us  would  have  to  think  twice  if  asked  off- 
hand. Where  is  Van  Dieman's  Land?  Of  course  we 
remember,  when  we  glance  at  the  map,   that  it  is  a 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh,     217 

good-sized  island  just  south  of  Australia.  From  ex- 
treme north  to  extreme  south  it  is  about  as  far  as  from 
Buffalo  to  Philadelphia,  and  east  and  west  not  quite 
so  far  as  from  Buffalo  to  Albany.  And  here  is  a 
coincidence  :  Hobart  Town,  in  the  harbor  of  which 
the  prison-ship  Buffalo  dropped  anchor  with  her  load  of 
misery,  is  exactly  as  far  south  of  the  equator  as  Buffalo 
is  north  of  it.  Other  parallel  data  may  perhaps  be 
helpful :  It  was  in  1642  that  the  navigator  Tasman 
discovered  the  island,  naming  it  after  his  Dutch  patron, 
Van  Dieman.  The  explorer's  name  has  now  been 
substituted,  as  it  should  be,  and  Tasmania,  not  Van 
Dieman' s  Land,  appears  on  modern  maps.  The  history 
of  that  land  dates  from  1642.  It  was  in  1641  that 
those  adventurous  missioners,  Brebeuf  and  Chaumonot, 
first  carried  their  portable  altar  across  the  Niagara ;  and 
from  the  Relations  of  their  order  for  that  year  the 
world  gained  the  first  actual  glimpse  of  the  Niagara 
region.  In  the  world's  annals,  therefore,  this  far-away 
island  and  our  own  Niagara  and  lake  region  are  of  the 
same  age.  One  other  parallel  may  be  ventured.  The 
first  permanent  settlement  in  Van  Dieman' s  Land  was 
made  in  1803.  In  1804  Buffalo  had  fifteen  actual 
settlers  and  a  few  squatters.  But  here  our  parallels 
end,  for  when,  on  that  February  morning  of  1840,  the 
unhappy  Marsh  was  put  ashore,  he  found  a  community 
unlike  any  that  has  ever  existed  in  this  happier  part 
of  the  world.  For  over  thirty  years  England  had  been 
sending  thither  her  worst  criminals.  Shipload  after 
shipload,  year  after  year,  of   the  most  depraved   and 


2 1 8     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh, 

vicious  of  mankind,  had  been  sent  out.  England  had 
made  of  it  and  of  Botany  Bay  a  dumping-ground  for 
whatever  manner  of  evil  men  and  women  she  could 
scrape  from  her  London  slums.  There  was  some  free 
colonization,  but  it  went  on  slowly.  Honest  men 
hesitated  to  go  where  society  was  so  handicapped. 
The  treatment  of  the  convicts  varied  according  to  the 
Governors,  but  for  years  before  Marsh  arrived  it  seems 
to  have  been  as  harsh  and  brutalizing  as  imperiousness 
and  cruelty  could  devise.  In  1836  Sir  John  Franklin 
was  sent  out  to  the  station.  He  was  an  exceptionally 
humane  and  generous  man,  according  to  most  accounts. 
Marsh  does  not  complain  of  any  severity  from  him, 
but  calls  him  an  old  granny,  a  glutton  and  a  temporizer 
in  his  promises  to  convicts.  It  is  something  foreign  to 
our  purpose  to  dwell  upon  this  point,  nor  is  it  a 
gracious  thing  to  seek  any  imputation  against  a  charac- 
ter which  history  delights  to  hold  as  the  embodiment 
of  the  gallant  and  heroic.  We  must  remember  that 
Robert  Marsh's  point  of  view  was  not  likely  to  bring 
him  to  favorable  estimates  of  those  in  authority 
over  him  and  through  whom  his  very  real  oppression 
came.  Years  after,  when  the  great  explorer's  bones 
lay  whitening  in  the  unknown  North,  this  far-away  col- 
ony raised  to  his  memory  a  noble  bronze  statue,  which 
stands  to-day  in  Franklin  Square,  Hobart,  not  far  from 
the  old  Government  House,  the  scene  of  his  uncon- 
genial administration. 

And  now  behold  our  hero  marched  ashore  with  his 
fellows ;  reeling  like  a  drunken  man,  the  strange  effect 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     219 

of  firm  earth  under  foot  after  months  of  heaving  sea- 
way ;  examined,  ticketed  and  numbered,  clad  in  Her 
Majesty's  livery,  and  sent  to  a  near-by  country  station, 
where  he  is  put  to  work  under  savage  overseers  at  car- 
rying stone  for  road-building ;  and  thus  began  five 
years  of  unmitigated  suffering  for  Robert  Marsh  in  that 
detestable  land.  There  were  about  43,000  convicts  on 
the  island  at  the  time,  25,000  of  whom  were  driven  to 
daily  work  in  chain  gangs,  on  the  roads,  in  the  wet 
mines  or  the  forest.  The  rest  were  ex-convicts ;  had 
served  their  sentences  and  counted  themselves  among 
the  free  population,  which  all  told  did  not  then  exceed 
60,000.  Conceive  of  a  free  community,  nearly  one  half 
of  whom,  men  and  women,  were  former  convicts,  but 
not  regenerate.  For  years  the  brothels  of  London, 
Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  were  emptied  into  Van  Dieman's 
Land.  A  reputable  writer  has  said  that  at  this  time 
female  virtue  was  unknown  in  the  island.  The  wealthy 
land-owners,  under  government  patronage,  were  auto- 
crats in  their  own  domain.  The  whipping -post,  the 
triangle  —  a  refinement  of  cruelty  —  and  the  gallows 
were  familiar  sights.  The  slightest  failure  at  his  daily 
task  sent  the  convict  to  the  whipping-post  or  to  soli- 
tary confinement. 

Official  iniquity  flourished  under  Sir  George  Arthur's 
reign  of  eleven  years.  He  was  Franklin's  predecessor, 
and  his  minions  were  still  in  control  when  Marsh  came 
under  their  power.  He  was  shifted  from  station  to 
station ;  fed  like  a  dog,  lodged  in  the  meanest  huts 
and  worked  well  nigh  to  death.     The  worst  characters 


2  20     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh. 

were  his  overseers,  and  the  day  began  with  the  lash. 
A  convict's  strength  would  give  out  under  his  load  ; 
he  would  lag  behind,  or  stop  to  rest.  At  once  he 
would  be  taken  to  the  station,  stripped  to  the  waist  — 
if  he  chanced  to  have  anything  on  —  strung  up  to  the 
post  or  triangle,  and  flogged.  As  an  additional  meas- 
ure of  reform,  brine  was  thrown  into  the  gashes  which 
the  lash  had  made.  These  were  the  milder  forms  of 
daily  punishment.  Sir  George  Arthur's  prouder  record 
comes  from  the  executions.  Travelers  to-day  tell  us  that 
Tasmania  is  really  a  second  England  \  in  its  settled 
portions  it  is  a  land  of  pleasant  vales  and  gentle  rivers, 
rich  in  harvests  of  the  temperate  zone.  ^'  Appleland," 
some  have  called  it,  from  its  fruitful  orchards ;  but  no 
tree  transplanted  from  Merrie  England  ever  flourished 
more  than  the  black  stock  from  Tyburn  Hill.  Sir 
George  hanged  1,500  during  his  stay.  Marsh  tells  of 
a  compassionate  clergyman  who  was  watching  with  in- 
terest the  erection  of  a  gallows.  '*  Yes,"  he  said,  '*I 
suppose  it  will  do,  but  it  is  not  as  large  as  we  need.  I 
think  ten  will  hang  comfortable,  but  twelve  will  be 
rather  crowded. '  * 

It  is  small  wonder  that  our  hero  tried  to  escape.  He 
took  to  the  bush  —  which  means  the  unexplored  and 
inhospitable  forest  —  with  a  band  of  friends  ;  was  cap- 
tured, punished,  and  thereafter  dressed  in  magpie  — 
trousers  and  frock  one  half  black,  one  half  yellow ;  and 
in  this  garb,  which  advertised  to  all  that  he  had  been  a 
bush-ranger,  he  worked  on  until  the  spring  of  1842, 
when   Sir  John  Franklin  made  him  a  ticket-of-leave 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     221 

man.  This  relieved  him  from  the  overseers,  and  gave 
him  permission  to  work,  for  whatever  wages  he  could 
get,  in  an  assigned  district. 

And  now  again,  of  this  new  phase  of  his  misad- 
ventures, a  long  story  could  be  made.  At  that  time 
the  best  circumstanced  ticket-of-leave  men  got  about 
a  shilling  a  day  and  boarded  themselves.  But  there 
was  little  work  and  many  seekers.  They  roamed  over 
the  country,  turned  away  from  plantation  after  planta- 
tion, and  in  many  cases  became  the  boldest  of  outlaws. 
Escape  from  the  island  was  well  nigh  impossible  ;  but 
after  many  hardships,  utterly  unable  to  get  honest 
work.  Marsh  was  one  of  a  party  that  determined  to  try 
it.  Making  their  way  eighty  miles  to  the  seashore, 
they  hid  in  the  woods,  where  for  a  week  or  so  they 
gathered  firewood,  buried  potatoes  and  snared  kangaroo. 
One  of  their  number  reached  a  settlement  and  returned 
with  the  word  that  an  American  whaler  was  coming  to 
take  them  off.  After  six  days  more  of  waiting  the 
vessel  hove  in  sight.  As  she  tried  to  draw  near  and 
send  boats  ashore  a  storm  came  up  and  she  narrowly 
escaped  the  breakers.  At  this  critical  moment  a  British 
armed  patrol  schooner  rounded  a  point  down  the  coast 
and  the  American  made  her  escape  with  great  difficulty, 
leaving  the  score  of  runaway  convicts  at  their  precarious 
lookout,  hopeless  and  despondent. 

They  were  soon  arrested.  Marsh  among  them.  He 
was  tried  for  breaking  his  patrol,  and  sent  to  an  inland 
district,  100  miles  through  the  bush  and  swamps.  ''  It 
was  all  punishment,"  he  says  pathetically,  in  describ- 


2  2  2     Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh. 

ing  this  journey  on  which  he  nearly  perished.  So 
down-hearted  and  distressed  were  they,  so  appalled 
by  the  war  of  nature  and  man  against  them,  that  one 
of  Marsh's  companions,  with  fagged-out  brain,  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  really  in  hell  and  that 
the  devil  himself  was  in  charge  of  them.  But  there  is 
always  a  turn  to  the  tide.  They  trapped  a  kangaroo 
and  did  not  starve.  Marsh  reached  his  district  and 
this  time  found  work,  which  had  to  be  light,  for  he 
was  weak,  emaciated  and  troubled  day  and  night  with 
a  pain  in  his  chest.  And  finally  the  glad  word  came 
that  he  was  gazetted  for  pardon  and  could  go  to 
Hobart.  There,  on  January  27,  1845,  after  ten 
months  in  Canada  prisons,  four  and  a  half  months  in  a 
transport  ship,  and  five  years  in  a  convict  colony,  he 
went  on  board  the  American  whaler  Steiglitz  of  Sag 
Harbor,  Selah  Young,  master,  a  free  man. 

The  Steiglitz  was  bound  out  on  a  whaling  voyage. 
No  matter,  she  would  take  Marsh  away  from  that  hell. 
She  cruised  for  whale  off  New  Zealand,  then  made 
north,  and  in  April  anchored  off  Honolulu.  King 
Hamehameha  III.,  on  hearing  the  story  of  the  con- 
vict Americans,  welcomed  them  ashore,  and  there 
Marsh  stayed  for  four  months,  exploring  the  islands 
and  waiting  for  a  chance  to  get  home.  At  last  it  came 
in  the  welcome  shape  of  the  whaler  Samuel  Robertson, 
Capt.  Warner,  bound  for  New  Bedford.  She  touched  at 
the  Society  Islands  and  Pernambuco,  and  on  March  13, 
1846,  after  seven  years  four  and  a  half  months  absence, 
Marsh  stepped  ashore  in  his  own  country  again.     The 


Misadventures  of  Robert  Marsh.     223 

people  of  New  Bedford  helped  him  and  a  few  others  as 
far  as  Utica.  There  one  of  his  comrades  in  exile  left 
him  for  his  home  in  Watertown,  and  others  went  their 
several  ways.  Marsh  was  helped  as  far  as  Canandaigua, 
where  his  brother  met  him  and  took  him  to  his  home 
in  Avon  ;  and  after  a  time  of  recuperation  there,  they 
came  on  to  Buffalo,  where  he  met  his  father,  his 
mother  and  sister.  He  soon  crossed  the  river,  visited 
Toronto,  and  probably  looked  over  the  scenes  of  his 
early  cracker-peddling  and  subsequent  campaigning,  up 
and  down  the  Niagara.  He  had  traveled  77,000  miles, 
but  here  his  journey  ended  ;  and  here  the  Patriot  exile 
told  his  story,  which  I  have  drawn  on  in  an  imperfect 
way,  for  this  true  chronicle  of  old  trails. 


Underground  Trails, 


UNDERGROUND  TRAILS, 


IT  WAS  Dame  Nature  who  decreed  that  the  Niagara 
region  should  be  peculiarly  a  place  of  trails. 
When  she  set  the  great  cataract  midway  between 
two  lakes,  she  thereby  ordained  that  in  days  to  come 
the  Indian  should  go  around  the  falls,  on  foot.  The 
Indian  trail  was  a  footpath ;  nothing  more.  Here  it 
followed  the  margin  of  a  stream ;  there,  well  nigh 
indiscernable,  it  crossed  a  rocky  plateau  ;  again,  worn 
deep  in  yielding  loam,  it  led  through  thick  woods, 
twisting  and  turning  around  trees  and  boulders,  with 
detours  for  swamps  or  bad  ground,  and  long  stretches 
along  favorable  slopes  or  sightly  ridges.  Who  can 
hazard  a  guess  as  to  the  time  when,  or  by  what  manner 
of  men,  these  trails  were  first  established  in  our  region  ? 
Immemorial  in  their  source  —  akin  in  natural  origins 
to  the  path  the  deer  makes  in  going  to  the  salt-lick  or 
to  drink  —  they  were  old,  established,  when  our  history 
begins.  And  when  the  white  man  came  he  followed 
the  old  trails.  Traveling  like  the  Indian,  by  v/ater  when 
he  could  ;  when  lakes  and  rivers  did  not  serve,  he  found 
the  footpaths  ready  made  for  him  in  the  forest.  Ar- 
mies came,  cutting  military  roads.  Settlers  followed 
to  banish  forests,  drain  swamps,  and  make  new  high- 
ways. And  yet  the  horseman,  the  military  train,  the 
wagon  of  the  pioneer,  the  early  stage-coach,  the  rail- 


2  28  Underground  Trails. 

road,  each  in  its  day,  along  many  of  the  most  direct 
and  important  thoroughfares,  has  but  followed  the 
ancient  ways.  The  thing  is  axiomatic.  Nature  for 
the  most  part  decrees  where  men  shall  walk.  Her 
lakes  and  rivers  and  her  hills  may  be  strewn  by  whim  ; 
but  there  are  plain  reasons  enough  for  our  road -build- 
ing. We  go  where  we  can,  with  safety  and  expedition. 
So  ran  the  red  man.     We  still  follow  the  old  trails. 

Other  aspects  of  our  frontier  are  worthy  of  a 
thought.  Two  nations  look  across  the  Niagara,  so 
that,  even  though  its  flow  were  placid  from  lake  to 
lake,  it  would  still  be  a  political  barrier,  a  halting- 
place.  This  fact  has  filled  it  full  of  trails  in  history. 
Again,  as  the  gateway  of  the  West,  the  paths  of  immi- 
gration and  of  commerce  for  a  century  have  here  con- 
verged. The  early  settlers  of  Michigan  and  Wiscon- 
sin went  by  the  old  Lewiston  ferry.  From  Buffalo  by 
boat,  and  from  old  Suspension  Bridge  by  rail,  who 
can  estimate  the  thousands  who  have  gone  on  to  create 
the  New  West  ?  From  the  earliest  Iroquois  raid  upon 
the  Neuters,  down  to  yesterday's  excursion,  the  Ni- 
agara frontier  has  been  peculiarly  a  region  of  passing, 
of  coming  and  going,  along  old  trails. 

Now  of  all  the  paths  that  have  led  hitherward,  none 
has  greater  significance  in  American  history  than  that 
known  as  the  Underground  Railroad.  Other  paths, 
touching  here,  have  led  to  war,  to  wealth,  to  pleasure  ; 
but  this  led  to  Liberty.  Thousands  of  negro  slaves,  gain  - 
ing  after  infinite  hardships  these  shores  of  the  lake  or 
river,  have  looked  across  the  smiling  expanse  to  such  an 


Underground  Trails.  229 

elysium  as  only  a  slave  can  dream  of.  Once  the  pas- 
sage made,  no  matter  how  poor  the  passenger,  freedom 
became  his  possession  and  the  heritage  of  his  children. 
The  chattel  became  a  man.  I  can  never  sail  upon  the 
blue  lake,  or  down  the  pleasant  river,  without  seeing 
in  fancy  this  throng  of  famished,  frightened,  blindly 
hopeful  blacks,  for  whom  these  waters  were  the  gateway 
to  new  life.  The  most  vital  part  of  the  Underground 
Railroad  was  the  over-water  ferry.  Bark  canoe  and 
great  steamer  alike  leave  no  lasting  trail ;  but  to  him 
who  reads  the  history  of  our  region,  this  fair  waterway 
at  our  door  is  thronged  as  a  street ;  and  every  secret 
traveler  thereby  is  worthy  of  his  attention.  Much  has 
been  recorded  of  these  refugees,  who  came,  singly  or 
in  small  parties,  for  more  than  thirty  years  preceding 
the  Civil  War.  Indeed,  runaway  slaves  passed  this  way 
to  Canada  soon  after  the  War  of  1812.  The  tales  of 
soldiers  returning  to  Kentucky  from  the  Niagara  fron- 
tier and  other  campaigns  of  that  war,  first  planted  in 
the  minds  of  Southern  slaves  the  idea  that  Canada  was 
a  land  of  freedom.  By  1830  many  earnest  people  who 
disapproved  of  slavery,  the  Quakers  prominent  among 
them,  were  giving  organized  aid  to  the  escaping  blacks. 
In  many  secret  ways  the  refugees  were  passed  on  from 
one  friend  to  another.  Hiding-places  were  established, 
and  routes  which  were  found  advantageous  were  regu- 
larly followed. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  present  plan  to  enter  upon  a 
general  sketch  of  the  Underground  Railroad.  That 
task  has  already  been  admirably  performed,  at  volumi- 


230  Underground  Trails. 

nous  length,  by  careful  students.  My  aim  in  this  paper 
is  to  bring  together  a  number  of  incidents  and  narra- 
tives, particularly  illustrative  of  its  work  at  the  eastern 
end  of  Lake  Erie  and  along  the  Niagara  frontier,  in 
order  that  the  student  may  the  better  appreciate  how 
vital  this  phase  of  the  slavery  issue  was,  even  in  this 
region,  for  more  than  a  generation  preceding  the 
Civil  War.  There  were  established  routes  for  the  pas- 
sage of  fugitive  slaves  :  From  the  seaboard  States  to  the 
North,  by  water  from  Newberne,  S.  C,  and  Portsmouth, 
Va.;  or  by  land  routes  from  Washington  and  Philadel- 
phia, to  and  through  New  England  and  so  into  Quebec. 
There  was  **John  Brown's  route"  through  Eastern 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  ;  and  there  w^ere  many  routes 
through  Iowa  and  Illinois,  most  of  them  leading  to 
Chicago  and  other  Lake  Michigan  ports,  whence  the 
refugees  came  by  boat  to  Canadian  points,  chiefly 
along  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Erie ;  or  even,  in  some 
cases,  by  water  to  Collingwood  on  Georgian  Bay,  where 
a  considerable  number  of  runaway  slaves  were  carried 
prior  to  the  Civil  War.  But  the  travel  by  these  extreme 
East  and  West  routes  was  insignificant  as  compared 
with  the  number  that  came  through  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio  and  Indiana,  to  points  on  the  south  shore 
of  Lake  Erie  and  the  Detroit  and  Niagara  rivers  at 
either  end.  The  region  bounded  by  the  Ohio,  the 
Allegheny,  and  the  western  border  of  Indiana  was  a 
vast  plexus  of  Underground  routes.  The  negroes  were 
taken  across  to  Canada  in  great  numbers  from  Detroit 
and  other  points  on  that  river  ;  from  Sandusky  to  Point 


Underground  Trails.  231 

Pelee  ;  from  Ashtabula  to  Port  Stanley  ;  from  Conneaut 
to  Port  Burwell ;  from  Erie  to  Long  Point ;  and  from 
all  south-shore  points  on  Lake  Erie  they  were  brought 
by  steamer  to  Buffalo.  Often,  the  vessel  captains  would 
put  the  refugees  ashore  between  Long  Point  and 
Buffalo.  x\t  other  times,  the  fugitives  were  sent  to 
stations  at  Black  Rock  or  Niagara  Falls,  whence  they 
were  soon  set  across  the  river  and  were  free.  There 
were  some  long  routes  across  New  York  State,  the  chief 
one  being  up  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  valleys  to  Lake 
Ontario  ports.  There  was  some  crossing  to  Kings- 
ton, and  some  from  Rochester  to  Port  Dalhousie  or 
Toronto.  Another  route  led  from  Harrisburg  up  the 
Susquehanna  to  Williamsport,  thence  to  Elmira,  and 
northwesterly,  avoiding  large  towns,  to  Niagara  Falls. 
But  the  most  active  part  in  the  Underground  Railroad 
operations  in  New  York  State  was  borne  by  the  west- 
ern counties.  There  were  numerous  routes  through 
Allegany,  Chautauqua  and  Cattaraugus  counties,  along 
which  the  negroes  were  helped ;  all  converging  at 
Buffalo  or  on  the  Niagara.  In  the  old  towns  of  this 
section  are  still  many  houses  and  other  buildings  which 
are  pointed  out  to  the  visitor  as  having  been  former 
stations  on  the  Underground.  The  Pettit  house  at 
Fredonia  is  a  distinguished  example. 

It  is  impossible  to  state  even  approximately  the  num- 
ber of  refugee  negroes  who  crossed  by  these  routes  to 
Upper  Canada,  now  Ontario.  In  1844  the  number 
was    estimated  at  40,000;'    in  1852  the  Anti-Slavery 

1  See  '"■  Reminiscences  of  Levi  Coffin,"  p.  253. 


232  Underground  Trails. 

Society  of  Canada  stated  in  its  annual  report  that  there 
were  about  30,000  blacks  in  Canada  West ;  in  1858  the 
number  was  estimated  as  high  as  75,000. '  This  figure  is 
probably  excessive  ;  but  since  the  negroes  continued  to 
come,  up  to  the  hour  of  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion, it  is  probably  within  the  fact  to  say  that  more 
than  50,000  crossed  to  Upper  Canada,  nearly  all  from 
points  on  Lake  Erie,  the  Detroit  and  Niagara  rivers. 

Runaway  slaves  appeared  in  Buffalo  at  least  as  early 
as  the  '30's.  "  Professor  Edward  Orton  recalls  that  in 
1838,  soon  after  his  father  moved  to  Buffalo,  two 
sleigh-loads  of  negroes  from  the  Western  Reserve  were 
brought  to  the  house  in  the  night-time ;  and  Mr. 
Frederick  Nicholson  of  Warsaw,  N.  Y.,  states  that  the 
Underground  work  in  his  vicinity  began  in  1840.  From 
this  time  on  there  was  apparently  no  cessation  of  migra  - 
tions  of  fugitives  into  Canada  at  Black  Rock,  Buffalo 
and  other  points."^  Those  too  were  the  days  of  much 
passenger  travel  on  Lake  Erie,  and  certain  boats  came 
to  be  known  as  friendly  to  the  Underground  cause. 
One  boat  which  ran  between  Cleveland  and  Buffalo 
gave  employment  to  the  fugitive  William  Wells  Brown. 
It  became  known  at  Cleveland  that  Brown  would  take 
escaped  slaves  under  his  protection  without  charge, 
hence  he  rarely  failed  to  find  a  little  company  ready  to 
sail  when  he  started  out  from  Cleveland.  **In  the 
year  1842,"  he  says,  '*!  conveyed  from  the  1st  of 
May  to  the  1st  of  December,  sixty-nine  fugitives  over 


'  See  "John  Brown  and  His  Men,"  p,  171, 

"^  See  Siebert's '*  The  Underground  Railroad,"  pp.  35,  56. 


Underground  Trails.  233 

Lake  Erie  to  Canada.'"  Many  anecdotes  are  told  of 
the  search  for  runaways  on  the  lake  steamers.  Lake 
travel  in  the  ante-bellum  days  was  ever  liable  to  be 
enlivened  by  an  exciting  episode  in  a  '*  nigger-chase  "; 
but  usually,  it  would  seem,  the  negroes  could  rely  upon 
the  friendliness  of  the  captains  for  concealment  or 
other  assistance. 

There  are  chronicled,  too,  many  little  histories  of 
flights  which  brought  the  fugitive  to  Buffalo.  I  pass 
over  those  which  are  readily  accessible  elsewhere  to 
the  student  of  this  phase  of  our  home  history.^  It  is 
well,  however,  to  devote  a  paragraph  or  two  to  one 
famous  affair  which  most  if  not  all  American  writers  on 
the  Underground  Railroad  appear  to  have  overlooked. 

One  day  in  1836  an  intelligent  negro,  riding  a 
thoroughbred  but  jaded  horse,  appeared  on  the  streets 
of  Buffalo.  His  appearance  must  have  advertised  him 
to  all  as  a  runaway  slave.  I  do  not  know  that  he  made 
any  attempt  to  conceal  the  fact.  His  chief  concern 
was  to  sell  the  horse  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  get 
across  to  Canada.  And  there,  presently,  we  find  him, 
settled  at  historic  old  Niagara,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
river.     Here,  even  at  that  date,  so  many  negroes  had 


1"  Narrative  of  William  W.  Brown,"  1848,  pp.  107,  108.  Quoted  by 
Siebert. 

'^  There  is  a  considerable  literature  on  the  specific  subject  of  the  Under- 
ground Railroad,  and  a  great  deal  more  relating  to  it  is  to  be  found  in 
works  dealing  more  broadly  with  slavery,  and  the  political  history  of  our 
country.  Of  especial  local  interest  is  Eber  M.  Pettit's  "  Sketches  in  the 
History  of  the  Underground  Railroad,"  etc.,  Fredonia,  1879.  The  author, 
"for  many  years  a  conductor  on  the  Underground  Railroad  line  from 
slavery  to  freedom,"  has  recorded  many  episodes  in  which  the  fugitives 
were  brought  to  Buffalo,  Black  Rock,  or  Niagara  Falls,  and  gives  valuable 
and  interesting  data  regarding  the  routes  and  men  who  operated  them  in 
Western  New  York  and  Western  Pennsylvania, 


234  Underground  Trails, 

made  their  way  from  the  South,  that  more  than  400 
occupied  a  quarter  known  as  Negro  Town.  The  new- 
comer, whose  name  was  Moseby,  admitted  that  he  had 
run  away  from  a  plantation  in  Kentucky,  and  had  used 
a  horse  that  formerly  belonged  to  his  master  to  make 
his  way  North.  A  Kentucky  grand  jury  soon  foiind  a 
true  bill  against  him  for  horse-stealing,  and  civil  officers 
traced  him  to  Niagara,  and  made  requisition  for  his 
arrest  and  extradition.  The  year  before,  Sir  Francis 
Bond  Head  had  succeeded  Sir  John  Colborne  as  Gov- 
ernor of  Canada  West,  and  before  him  the  case  was  laid. 
Sir  Francis  regarded  the  charge  as  lawful,  notwith- 
standing the  avowal  of  Moseby' s  owners  that  if  they 
could  get  him  back  to  Kentucky  they  would  **make 
an  example  of  him  " ;  in  plainer  words,  would  whip 
him  to  death  as  a  warning  to  all  slaves  who  dared  to 
dream  of  seeking  freedom  in  Canada. 

Moseby  was  arrested  and  locked  up  in  the  Niagara 
jail ;  whereupon  great  excitement  arose,  the  blacks  and 
many  sympathizing  whites  declaring  that  he  should 
never  be  carried  back  South.  The  Governor,  Sir  Fran- 
cis, was  petitioned  not  to  surrender  Moseby  ;  he  replied 
that  his  duty  was  to  give  him  up  as  a  felon,  * '  although 
he  would  have  armed  the  province  to  protect  a  slave. ' ' 
For  more  than  a  week  crowds  of  negroes,  men  and 
women,  camped  before  the  jail,  day  and  night.  Un- 
der the  leadership  of  a  mulatto  schoolmaster  named 
Holmes,  and  of  Mrs.  Carter,  a  negress  with  a  gift  for 
making  fiery  speeches,  the  mob  were  kept  worked  up 
to  a  high  pitch  of  excitement,  although,  as  a  contem- 


Underground  Trails,  235 

porary  writer  avers,  they  were  unarmed,  showed  *'  good 
sense,  forbearance  and  resolution,"  and  declared  their 
intention  not  to  commit  any  violence  against  the  Eng- 
lish law.  They  even  agreed  that  Moseby  should 
remain  in  jail  until  they  could  raise  the  price  of  the 
horse,  but  threatened,  ''if  any  attempt  were  made  to 
take  him  from  the  prison,  and  send  him  across  to 
Lewiston,  they  would  resist  it  at  the  hazard  of  their 
lives."  The  order,  however,  came  for  Moseby' s  de- 
livery to  the  slave-hunters,  and  the  sheriff  and  a  party 
of  constables  attempted  to  execute  it.  Moseby  was 
brought  out  from  the  jail,  handcuffed  and  placed  in  a 
cart ;  whereupon  the  mob  attacked  the  officers.  The 
military  was  called  out  to  help  the  civil  force  and 
ordered  to  fire  on  the  assailants.  Two  negroes  were 
killed,  two  or  three  wounded,  and  Moseby  ran  off  and 
was  not  pursued.  The  negro  women  played  a  curi- 
ously-prominent part  in  the  affair.  '' They  had  been 
most  active  in  the  fray,  throwing  themselves  fearlessly 
between  the  black  men  and  the  whites,  who,  of  course, 
shrank  from  injuring  them.  One  woman  had  seized 
the  sheriff,  and  held  him  pinioned  in  her  arms ;  an- 
other, on  one  of  the  artillery-men  presenting  his  piece, 
and  swearing  that  he  would  shoot  her  if  she  did  not 
get  out  of  his  way,  gave  him  only  one  glance  of  un- 
utterable contempt,  and  with  one  hand  knocking  up 
his  piece,  and  collaring  him  with  the  other,  held  him 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  prevent  his  firing. ' '  ^ 

1 1  have  drawn  these  facts  from  Mrs.  Jameson's  "  Winter  Studies  and 
Summer  Rambles  in  Canada,"  published  in  London  in  1838.  Mrs.  Jameson 
was  at  Niagara  in  1837,  apparently  during  or  soon  after  the  riot.      She 


236  Underground  Trails, 

Soon  after,  in  the  same  year,  the  Governor  of 
Kentucky  made  requisition  on  the  Governor  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Canada  West  for  the  surrender  of  Jesse  Happy, 
another  runaway  slave,  also  on  a  charge  of  horse-steal- 
ing. Sir  Francis  held  him  in  confinement  in  Hamilton 
jail,  but  refused  to  deliver  him  up  until  he  had'  laid 
the  case  before  the  Home  Government.  In  a  most 
interesting  report  to  the  Colonial  Secretary,  under 
date  of  Toronto,  Oct.  8,  1837,  he  asked  for  instruc- 
tions **as  a  matter  of  general  policy,"  and  reviewed 
the  Moseby  case  in  a  fair  and  broad  spirit,  highly 
creditable  to  him  alike  as  an  administrator  and  a  friend 
of  the  oppressed.  "I  am  by  no  means  desirous,"  he 
wrote,  '  *  that  this  province  should  become  an  asylum 
for  the  guilty  of  any  color  ;  at  the  same  time  the 
documents  submitted  with  this  dispatch  will  I  conceive 
show  that  the  subject  of  giving  up  fugitive  slaves  to  the 
authorities  of  the  adjoining  republican  States  is  one 
respecting  which  it  is  highly  desirable  I  should  receive 
from  Her  Majesty's  Government  specific  instructions. 
.  It  may  be  argued  that  the  slave  escaping 
from  bondage  on  his  master' s  horse  is  a  vicious  struggle 
between  two  guilty  parties,  of  which  the  slave-owner 
is  not  only  the  aggressor,   but   the  blackest  criminal 


called  on  one  of  the  negro  women  who  had  been  foremost  in  the  fray. 
This  woman  was  "  apparently  about  live-and-twenty,"  had  been  a  slave  in 
Virginia,  but  had  run  away  at  sixteen.  This  would  indicate  that  she  may 
have  come  a  refugee  to  the  Niagara  as  early  as  1828.  William  Kirby,  in 
his  "Annals  of  Niagara,"  has  told  Moseby's  story,  with  more  detail  than 
Mrs.  Jameson  ;  he  reports  only  one  as  killed  in  the  melee  —  the  schoolmas- 
ter Holmes  —  and  adds  that  "  Moseby  lived  quietly  the  rest  of  his  life  in 
St  Catharines  and  Niagara."  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head's  official  communi- 
cation to  the  Home  Government  regarding  the  matter  reports  two  as 
killed. 


Underground  Trails.  237 

of  the  two.  It  is  a  case  of  the  dealer  in  human  flesh 
versus  the  stealer  of  horse-flesh  ;  and  it  may  be  argued 
that,  if  the  British  Government  does  not  feel  itself 
authorized  to  pass  judgment  on  the  plaintiff,  neither 
should  it  on  the  defendant."  Sir  Francis  continues  in 
this  ingenious  strain,  observing  that  ''it  is  as  much  a 
theft  in  the  slave  walking  from  slavery  to  liberty  in 
his  master's  shoes  as  riding  on  his  master's  horse." 
To  give  up  a  slave  for  trial  to  the  American  laws,  he 
argued,  was  in  fact  giving  him  back  to  his  former 
master ;  and  he  held  that,  until  the  State  authorities 
could  separate  trial  from  unjust  punishment,  however 
willing  the  Government  of  Canada  might  be  to  deliver 
up  a  man  for  trial,  it  was  justified  in  refusing  to  deliver 
him  up  for  punishment,  "unless  sufficient  security  be 
entered  into  in  this  province,  that  the  person  delivered 
up  for  trial  shall  be  brought  back  to  Upper  Canada  as 
soon  as  his  trial  or  the  punishment  awarded  by  it  shall 
be  concluded."  And  he  added  this  final  argument, 
begging  that  instructions  should  be  sent  to  him  at  once  : 

It  is  argued,  that  the  republican  states  have  no  right,  under  the 
pretext  of  any  human  treaty,  to  claim  from  the  British  Govern- 
ment, which  does  not  recognize  slavery,  beings  vv^ho  by  slave-law 
are  not  recognized  as  men  and  who  actually  existed  as  brute  beasts 
in  moral  darkness,  until  on  reaching  British  soil  they  suddenly 
heard,  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  the  sacred  words,  "Let 
there  be  light ;  and  there  was  light  ! "  From  that  moment  it  is 
argued  they  were  created  men,  and  if  this  be  true,  it  is  said  they 
cannot  be  held  responsible  for  conduct  prior  to  their  existence.  ^ 


1  See  **  A  Narrative,"  by  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head,  Bart.,  2d  ed.,  London, 
1839,  pp.  200-204. 


238  Underground  Trails, 

Sir  Francis  left  the  Home  Government  in  no  doubt 
as  to  his  own  feelings  in  the  matter;  and  although  I 
have  seen  no  further  report  regarding  Jesse  Happy, 
neither  do  I  know  of  any  case  in  which  a  refugee  in 
Canada  for  whom  requisition  was  thus  made  was  per- 
mitted to  go  back  to  slavery.  It  did  sometimes  happen, 
however,  that  refugees  were  enticed  across  the  river  on 
one  pretext  or  another,  or  grew  careless  and  took  their 
chances  on  the  American  side,  only  to  fall  into  the 
clutches  of  the  ever-watchful  slave-hunters. 

British  love  of  fair  play  could  be  counted  on  to  stand 
up  for  the  rights  of  the  negro  on  British  soil ;  but  that 
by  no  means  implies  that  this  inpouring  of  ignorant 
blacks,  unfitted  for  many  kinds  of  pioneer  work  and 
ill  able  to  withstand  the  climate,  was  welcomed  by  the 
communities  in  which  they  settled.  At  best,  they 
were  tolerated.  Very  different  from  the  spirit  shown 
in  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head's  plea,  is  the  tone  of  much 
tourist  comment,  especially  during  the  later  years  of 
the  Abolition  movement.  Thus,  in  1854,  the  Hon. 
Amelia  M.  Murray  wrote,  just  after  her  Niagara  visit : 

**  One  of  the  evils  consequent  upon  Southern  Slavery, 
is  the  ignorant  and  miserable  set  of  coloured  people 
who  throw  themselves  into  Canada.  ...  I  must 
regret  that  the  well-meant  enthusiasm  of  the  Aboli- 
tionists has  been  without  judgment.  ' ' '  Another  partic- 
ularly unamiable  critic,  W.  Howard  Russell,  a  much- 
exploited  English  war  correspondent  who  wrote  volum- 


1"  Letters  from  the  United   States,  Cuba  and  Canada,"  London,  1856, 
p.  ii3. 


Underground  Trails.  239 

inously  of  the  United  States  during  the  Civil  War,  and 
who  showed  less  good  will  to  this  country  than  any 
other  man  who  ever  wrote  so  much,  came  to  Niagara  in 
the  winter  of  1862,  and  in  sourly  recording  his  un- 
pleasant impressions  wrote  :  **  There  are  too  many  free 
negroes  and  too  many  Irish  located  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  American  town,  to  cause  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Abolitionists  to  be  received  with  much 
favor  by  the  American  population  ;  and  the  Irish  of 
course  are  opposed  to  free  negroes,  where  they  are 
attracted  by  paper  mills,  hotel  service,  bricklaying, 
plastering,  housebuilding,  and  the  like  —  the  Ameri- 
cans monopolizing  the  higher  branches  of  labor  and 
money-making,  including  the  guide  business. '  A  few 
pages  farther  on,  however,  describing  his  sight-seeing 
on  the  Canadian  side,  he  speaks  of  * '  our  guide,  a 
strapping  specimen  of  negro  or  mulatto.  ' '  Quotations 
of  like  purport  from  English  writers  during  the  years 
immediately  preceding  the  Civil  War,  might  be  multi- 
plied. One  rarely  will  find  any  opinion  at  all  favorable 
to  the  refugee  black,  and  never  any  expression  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  Abolitionists  by  English  tourists  who 
wrote  books,  or  endorsal  of  the  work  accomplished  by 
the  Underground  Railroad. 

From  its  importance  as  a  terminal  of  the  Under- 
ground, one  would  look  to  Buifalo  for  a  wealth  of 
reminiscence  on  this  subject.  On  the  contrary,  com- 
paratively  little    seems    to    have   been    gathered    up 


'"Canada,  Its  Defences,  Condition  and   Resources,'''  by  W.  Howard 
Russell,  LL.  D.,  London,  1865,  pp.  33,  34. 


240  Underground  Trails, 

regarding  Buffalo  stations  and  workers.  The  Buffalo 
of  ante-bellum  days  was  not  a  large  place,  and  many 
**  personally-escorted "  refugees  were  taken  direct 
from  country  stations  to  the  river  ferries,  without 
having  to  be  hid  away  in  the  city.  Certain  houses 
there  were,  however,  which  served  as  stations.  One  of 
these,  on  Ferry  Street  near  Niagara,  long  since  disap- 
peared. When  the  ''Morris  Butler  house,"  at  the 
corner  of  Utica  Street  and  Linwood  Avenue,  built 
about  1857,  was  taken  down  a  few  years  ago,  hiding- 
places  were  found  on  either  side  of  the  front  door, 
accessible  only  from  the  cellar.  Old  residents  then 
recalled  that  Mr.  Butler  was  reputed  to  keep  the  last 
station  on  the  Underground  route  to  Canada.* 

Many  years  before  Mr.  Butler's  time  runaway  slaves 
used  to  appear  in  Buffalo,  eagerly  asking  the  way  to 
Canada.  Those  days  were  recalled  by  the  death,  on 
Aug.  2,  1899,  in  the  Kent  County  House  of  Refuge, 
Chatham,  Ont.,  of  ''Mammy"  Chadwick,  reputed  to 
be  over  100  years  old.  She  was  born  a  slave  in 
Virginia  ;  was  many  times  sold,  once  at  auction  in  New 
Orleans,  and  later  taken  to  Kentucky.  She  escaped 
and  made  her  way  by  the  Underground  to  Buffalo  in 
1837.  She  always  fixed  her  arrival  at  Fort  Erie  as 
"in  de  year  dat  de  Queen  was  crowned."     She  mar- 


1  Mr.  Butler's  name  does  not  appear  in  Siebert's  history,  "The  Under- 
ground Railroad."  The  "operators""  for  Erie  County  named  therein 
(p.  414)  are  Gideon  Barker,  the  Hon.  Wm.  Haywood,  Geo.  W.  Johnson, 
Deacon  Henry  Moore,  and  Messrs.  Aldrich  and  Williams.  For  Niagara 
County  he  names  Thomas  Binmore,  W.  H.  (hilds,  M.  C.  Richardson, 
Lyman  Spaulding^.  Chautauqua  and  Wyoming  counties  present  longer 
lists,  and  thirty-six  are  named  for  Monroe  County.  As  appears  from  my 
text,  the  Erie  County  list  could  be  extended. 


Underground  Trails.  241 

ried  in  Fort  Erie,  but  after  a  few  years  went  to 
Chatham,  in  the  midst  of  a  district  full  of  refugee 
blacks,  and  there  she  lived  for  sixty  years,  rejoicing  in  the 
distinction  of  having  nursed  in  their  infancy  many  who 
became  Chatham's  oldest  and  most  prominent  citizens. 
There  still  lives  at  Fort  Erie  an  active  old  woman 
who  came  to  Buffalo,  a  refugee  from  slavery,  some 
time  prior  to  1837;  she  herself  says,  '*agood  while 
before  the  Canadian  Rebellion,"  and  her  memory  is  so 
clear  and  vigorous  in  general  that  there  appears  no 
warrant  for  mistrusting  it  on  this  point.  This  interest- 
ing woman  is  Mrs.  Betsy  Robinson,  known  throughout 
the  neighborhood  as  "Aunt  Betsy."  She  lately  told 
her  story  to  me  at  length.  Robbed  of  all  the  pictur- 
esque detail  with  which  she  invested  it,  the  bare  facts 
are  here  recorded.  Her  father,  mother,  and  their  seven 
children  were  slaves  on  a  plantation  in  Rockingham 
County,  Virginia.  There  came  a  change  of  owner- 
ship, and  Baker  (her  father)  heard  he  was  to  be  sold 
to  New  Orleans  —  the  fate  which  the  Virginia  slave 
most  dreaded  ;  **  and  yet,"  says  Aunt  Betsy,  '*  I've  seen 
dem  slaves,  in  gangs  bein'  sent  off  to  New  Orleans, 
singin'  and  play  in'  on  jewsharps,  lettin*  on  to  be  that 
careless  an'  happy."  But  not  so  Baker.  He  made 
ready  to  escape.  For  a  week  beforehand  his  wife  hid 
food  in  the  woods.  On  a  dark  night  the  whole  family 
stole  away  from  the  plantation,  crossed  a  river,  prob- 
ably the  north  fork  of  the  Shenandoah,  and  pushed 
northward.  The  father  had  procured  three  * '  passes, ' ' 
which    commended    them    for    assistance    to    friends 


242  Underground  Trails. 

along  the  way.  According  to  Aunt  Betsy,  there  were 
a  good  many  white  people  in  the  South  in  those 
days  who  helped  the  runaway.  She  was  a  little  girl 
then,  and  she  now  recalls  the  child's  vivid  impressions 
of  the  weeks  they  spent  traveling  and  hiding  in  the 
mountains,  which  she  says  were  full  of  rattlesnakes, 
wolves  and  deer.  It  was  a  wild  country  that  they 
crossed,  for  they  came  out  near  Washington,  Pa.  Here 
the  Quakers  helped  them  ;  and  her  father  and  brothers 
worked  in  the  coal  mines  for  a  time.  Then  they  came 
on  to  Pittsburg.  From  that  city  north  there  was  no 
lack  of  help.  ''We  walked  all  the  way,"  she  says. 
**  There  was  no  railroads  in  them  days,  an'  I  don't  re- 
member's  we  got  any  wagon-rides.  You  see,  we  was  so 
many,  nine  in  all.  I  remember  we  went  to  Erie,  and 
came  through  Fredonia.  We  walked  through  Buffalo  — 
it  was  little  then,  you  know  —  and  down  the  river  road. 
My  father  missed  the  Black  Rock  ferry  an'  we  went 
away  down  where  the  bridge  is  now.  I  remember  we 
had  to  walk  back  up  the  river,  and  then  we  got  brought 
across  to  Fort  Erie.  That  was  a  good  while  before  the 
Canadian  Rebellion."' 

Samuel  Murray,  a  free-born  negro,  came  to  Buffalo 
from  Reading,  Pa.,  in  1852.  For  a  time  he  was 
employed  at  the  American  Hotel,  and  went  to  work 

^  No  doubt  an  investigator  could  find  a  number  of  former  slaves,  rich  in 
reminiscences  of  Underground  days,  still  living  in  the  villages  and  towns 
of  the  Niagara  Peninsula,  though  they  would  not  be  very  numerous,  for, 
as  Aunt  Betsy  says,  "the  old  heads  are 'bout  all  gone  now."  Between 
Fort  Erie  and  Ridgeway  lives  Daniel  Woods,  a  former  slave,  who  came  by 
the  Underground.  Harriet  Black,  a  sister-in-law  of  Mrs.  Robinson,  still 
living  near  Ridgeway,  was  also  a  "passenger."  Probably  others  live  at 
St.  Catharines,  Niagara  and  other  points  of  former  negro  settlement,  who 
could  tell  thrilling  tales  of  their  escape  from  the  South.    There  are  ihany 


Underground  Trails.  243 

very  early  in  the  morning.  It  was,  he  has  said,  a 
common  occurrence  to  meet  strange  negroes,  who 
would  ask  him  the  way  to  Canada.  **Many  a  time," 
said  Murray,  '*I  have  gone  into  the  hotel  and  taken 
food  for  them.  Then  I  would  walk  out  Niagara  Street 
to  the  ferry  and  see  them  on  the  boat  bound  for  Canada. ' ' 
Mr.  Murray  has  related  the  following  incidents : 

**  There  was  a  free  black  man  living  in  Buifalo  in 
the  '50's  who  made  a  business  of  going  to  the  South 
after  the  wives  of  former  slaves  who  had  found  com- 
fortable homes,  either  in  the  Northern  States  or  in 
Canada.  They  paid  him  well  for  his  work,  and  he 
rarely  failed  to  accomplish  his  mission. 

''While  connected  with  the  Underground  Railroad 
in  Buffalo  word  was  sent  us  that  a  colored  man  from 
Detroit,  a  traitor  to  his  color,  was  coming  to  Buffalo. 
This  man  made  a  business  of  informing  Southerners  of 
the  whereabouts  of  their  slaves,  and  was  paid  a  good 
sum  per  head  for  those  that  they  recovered.  When  we 
heard  that  he  was  coming  a  meeting  was  held  and  a 
committee  appointed  to  arrange  for  his  reception. 
After  being  here  a  few  days,  not  thinking  that  he  was 
known,  he  was  met  by  the  committee  and  taken  out  in 
the  woods  where  the  Parade  House  now  stands.  Here 
he  was  tied  to  a  tree,  stripped  and  cow-hided  until  he 


survivors  on  the  Canada  side  of  the  Niagara,  of  another  class  ;  men  or 
women  who  were  born  in  slavery  but  were  "freed  by  the  bayonet,"  and 
came  North  with  no  fear  of  the  slave-catchers.  Of  this  class  at  Fort  Erie 
are  Melford  Harris  and  Thomas  Banks.  Mr.  Banks  was  sold  from  Vir- 
ginia to  go  "  down  the  river  " ;  got  his  freedom  at  Natchez,  joined  the  io2d 
Michigan  Infantry,  and  fought  for  the  Union  until  the  end  of  the  war. 
His  case  is  probably  typical  of  many,  but  does  not  belong  to  the  records 
of  the  Underground  Railroad. 


244  Underground  Trails. 

was  almost  dead.  He  lay  for  a  time  insensible  in  a 
pool  of  his  own  blood.  Finally  regaining  conscious- 
ness, he  made  his  way  back  into  Buffalo  and  as  soon  as 
he  was  able  complained  to  the  city  authorities.  His 
assailants  were  indentified,  arrested,  and  locked  up  in 
the  old  jail  to  await  the  result  of  his  injuries.  After  a 
time  the  excitement  caused  by  the  affair  subsided  and 
the  men  were  let  out  one  day  without  having  been 
tried. ' '  The  sympathy  of  the  sheriff,  and  probably  that 
of  the  community  as  a  whole,  was  plainly  not  with  the 
renegade  who  got  flogged. 

Another  celebrated  Underground  case  was  the  arrest 
at  Niagara  Falls  of  a  slave  named  Sneedon,  on  a  charge 
of  murder,  undoubtedly  trumped  up  to  procure  his 
return  South.  Sneedon  is  described  as  a  fine-looking 
man,  with  a  complexion  almost  white.  He  was 
brought  to  trial  in  Buffalo,  when  Eli  Cook  pleaded  his 
case  so  successfully  that  he  was  acquitted.  No  sooner 
was  he  released  than  he  was  spirited  away  via  the 
Underground  Railroad. 

Niagara  Falls,  far  more  than  Buffalo,  was  the  scene 
of  interesting  episodes  in  the  Underground  days.  Not 
only  did  many  refugee  negroes  find  employment  in  the 
vicinity,  especially  on  the  Canada  side,  but  many 
Southern  planters  used  to  visit  there,  bringing  their 
retinue  of  blacks.  Many  a  time  the  trusted  body- 
servant,  or  slave-girl,  would  leave  master  or  mistress  in 
the  discharge  of  some  errand,  and  never  come  back. 
Instances  are  related,  too,  of  sudden  meetings,  at  the 
Falls  hotels,   between  negro  waiters  and  the  former 


Underground  Trails.  245 

masters  they  had  run  away  from.  It  is  recorded  that 
when  Gen.  Peter  B.  Porter  brought  his  Kentucky  wife 
home  with  him  to  Niagara  Falls,  she  was  attended  by  a 
numerous  retinue  of  negro  servants,  but  that  one  by 
one  they  "  scented  freedom  in  the  air  "  and  ran  away, 
though  probably  not  to  any  immediate  betterment  of 
their  condition. 

Henry  Clay  visited  Buffalo  in  September,  1849. 
When  he  left  for  Cleveland  his  black  servant  Levi  was 
missing,  but  whether  he  had  gone  voluntarily  or  against 
his  wishes  Mr.  Clay  was  uncertain.  **  There  are  cir- 
cumstances having  a  tendency  both  ways, ' '  he  wrote  to 
Lewis  L.  Hodges  of  Buffalo,  in  his  effort  to  trace  the 
lost  property.  '*  If  voluntarily,  I  will  take  no  trouble 
about  him,  as  it  is  probable  that  in  a  reversal  of  our 
conditions  I  would  have  done  the  same  thing. ' ' '  The 
absentee  had  merely  been  left  in  Buffalo  —  probably  he 
missed  the  boat  —  and  reported  in  due  time  to  his  mas- 
ter at  Ashland.  The  incident,  however,  suggests  the 
hazards  of  Northern  travel  which  in  those  years  awaited 
wealthy  Southerners,  who  were  fond  of  making  long  so- 
journs at  Niagara  Falls,  accompanied  by  many  servants. 

An  '*old  resident  of  Buffalo"  is  to  be  credited 
with  the  following  reminiscence  : 

"  I  remember  one  attempt  that  was  made  to  capture 
a  runaway  slave.  It  was  right  up  here  on  Niagara 
Street.  The  negro  ventured  out  in  daytime  and  was 
seized  by  a  couple  of  men  who  had  been  on  the  watch 


1  H,  Clay  to  Lewis  L.  Hodges  ;  original  letter  in  possession  of  the  Buf- 
falo Historical  Society, 


246  Underground  Trails. 

for  him.  The  slave  was  a  muscular  fellow,  and  fought 
desperately  for  his  liberty ;  but  his  captors  began  beat- 
ing him  over  the  head  with  their  whips,  and  he  would 
have  been  overpowered  and  carried  off  if  his  cries  had 
not  attracted  the  attention  of  two  Abolitionists,  who 
ran  up  and  joined  in  the  scuffle.  It  was  just  "above 
Ferry  Street,  and  they  pulled  and  hauled  at  that  slave 
and  pounded  him  and  each  other  until  it  looked  as 
though  somebody  would  be  killed.  At  last,  however, 
the  slave,  with  the  help  of  his  friends,  got  away  and  ran 
for  his  life,  and  the  slave-chasers  and  the  Abolitionists 
dropped  from  blows  to  high  words,  the  former  threat- 
ening prosecutions  and  vengeance,  but  I  presume 
nothing  came  of  it. "  ^ 

Nowhere  were  the  friends  of  the  fugitive  more 
active  or  more  successful  than  in  the  towns  along 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  from  Erie  to  Buffalo.'' 
Some  years  ago  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  become 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Frank  Henry  of  Erie,  who 
had  been  a  very  active  ' '  conductor  ' '  on  the  Under- 
ground.^    From  him  I  had  the  facts  of  the  following 

1  Anonymous  reminiscences  published  in  the  Buffalo  Courier,  about  1887. 

2  Apparently  the  greatest  travel,  at  least  over  these  particular  routes, 
was  during  1840-41.  It  was  a  justifiable  boast  of  the  "conductors  "  that  a 
"passenger"  was  never  lost.  In  a  journal  of  notes,  which  was  annually 
kept  for  many  years  by  one  of  the  zealous  anti-slavery  men  of  that  day, 
I  find  the  following  entry  in  1841 :  "  Nov.  i. —  The  week  has  been  cold  ; 
some  hard  freezing  and  snow ;  now  warm  ;  assisted  six  fugitives  from 
oppression,  from  this  land  of  equal  rights  to  the  despotic  government  of 
Great  Britain,  where  they  can  enjoy  their  liberty.  Last  night  put  them  on 
board  a  steamboat  and  paid  their  passage  to  Buffalo." 

3  When  I  knew  Frank  Henry,  he  was  light-house  keeper  at  Erie.  He 
died  in  October,  1889,  and  his  funeral  was  a  memorable  one.  After  the 
body  had  been  viewed  by  his  friends,  while  it  lay  in  state  in  the  parlor  of 
his  old  home  in  Wesleyville,  the  casket  was  lifted  to  the  shoulders  of  the 
pall-bearers,  who  carried  it  through  the  streets  of  the  little  village  to  the 
church,  all  the  friends,  which  included  all  the  villagers  and  many  from  the 


Underground  Trails.  247 

experiences,  which  he  had  not  in  earlier  years  thought 
it  prudent  to  make  public.  These  I  now  submit,  partly 
in  Mr.  Henry's  own  language,  as  fairly-illustrative  epi- 
sodes in  the  history  of  Underground  trails  at  the  eastern 
end  of  Lake  Erie. 

In  the  year  1841  Capt.  David  Porter  Dobbins,  after- 
wards Superintendent  of  Life  Saving  Stations  in  the 
Ninth  U.  S.  District,  including  Lakes  Erie  and  Onta- 
rio, was  a  citizen  of  Erie.  In  politics  he  was  one 
of  the  sturdy,  old-time  Democrats,  not  a  few  of  whom, 
in  marked  contrast  to  their  '^Copperhead"  neighbors, 
secretly  sympathized  with  and  aided  the  runaway  slaves. 
Capt.  Dobbins  had  in  his  employ  a  black  man  named 
William  Mason,  his  surname  being  taken,  as  was  the 
usual,  but  not  invariable,  custom  among  slaves,  from 
that  of  his  first  master.  Now  Mason,  some  time  be- 
fore he  came  into  the  employ  of  Capt.  Dobbins,  had 
apparently  become  tired  of  getting  only  the  blows  and 
abuse  of  an  overseer  in  return  for  his  toil ;  so  one  night 
he  quietly  left  his  *'old  Kentucky  home,"  determined 
to  gain  his  freedom  or  die  in  the  attempt.  In  good 
time  he  succeeded  in  getting  to  Detroit,  then  a  small 
town ;  and  there  he  found  work,  took  unto  himself  a 


city  and  the  country  round  about,  following  in  procession  on  foot.  The 
little  church  could  not  hold  the  assemblage,  but  the  overflow  waited  until 
the  service  was  over,  content,  if  near  enough  the  windows  or  the  open 
door,  to  hear  but  a  portion  of  the  eulogies  his  beloved  pastor  pronounced. 
Then  they  all  proceeded  to  the  graveyard  behind  the  historic  church  and 
laid  him  away.  He  was  a  man  of  an  exceptionally  frank  and  lovable 
character.  Prof.  Wilbur  H.  Siebert  mentions  him  in  his  history,  "The 
Underground  Railroad  from  Slavery  to  Freedom";  but  nowhere  else,  I 
believe,  is  as  much  recorded  of  the  work  which  he  did  for  the  refugee 
slaves  as  in  the  incidents  told  in  the  following  pages  ;  and  these,  we  may 
be  assured,  are  but  examples  of  the  service  in  which  he  was  engaged 
for  a  good  many  years. 


248  Underground  Trails, 

wife,  and  essayed  to  settle  down.  Instead,  however, 
of  settling,  he  soon  found  himself  more  badly  stirred 
up  than  ever  before,  for  his  wife  proved  to  be  a 
veritable  she-devil  in  petticoats,  with  a  tongue  keener 
than  his  master's  lash.  They  parted,  and  the  unfaith- 
ful wife  informed  against  him  to  the  slave -hunters. 
Mason  fled,  made  his  way  to  Erie,  and  was  given  work 
by  Capt.  Dobbins.  He  was  a  stalwart  negro,  intelli- 
gent above  the  average,  altogether  too  fine  a  prize  to 
let  slip  easily,  and  the  professional  slave-hunters  lost 
no  time  in  hunting  him  out. 

For  many  years  prior  to  the  Civil  War  a  large  class 
of  men  made  their  living  by  ferreting  out  and  recaptur- 
ing fugitive  slaves  and  returning  them  to  their  old 
masters ;  or,  as  was  often  the  case,  selling  them  into 
slavery  again.  Free  black  men,  peaceful  citizens  of 
the  Northern  States,  were  sometimes  seized,  to  be  sold 
to  unscrupulous  men  who  stood  ever  ready  to  buy 
them.  There  was  but  little  hope  for  the  negro  who 
found  himself  carried  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
in  the  clutches  of  these  hard  men,  who  were  generally 
provided  with  a  minute  description  of  runaways  from 
the  border  States,  and  received  a  large  commission  for 
capturing  and  returning  them  into  bondage. 

One  day,  as  Mason  was  cutting  up  a  quarter  of 
beef  in  Capt.  Dobbins' s  house,  two  men  came  in, 
making  plausible  excuses.  Mason  saw  they  were 
watching  him  closely,  and  his  suspicions  were  at  once 
aroused. 

"  Is  your  name  William  ?  "  one  of  them  asked. 


Underground  Trails,  249 

**No,  "  said  Mason  curtly,  pretending  to  be  busy 
with  his  beef. 

Then  they  told  him  to  take  off  his  shoe  and  let  them 
see  if  there  was  a  scar  on  his  foot.  On  his  refusing  to 
do  so,  they  produced  handcuffs  and  called  on  him  to 
surrender.  Livid  with  desperation  and  fear,  Mason 
rushed  upon  them  with  his  huge  butcher-knive,  and 
the  fellows  took  to  their  heels  to  save  their  heads. 
They  lost  no  time  in  getting  a  warrant  from  a  magis- 
trate on  some  pretext  or  other,  and  placed  it  in  the 
hands  of  an  officer  for  execution. 

While  the  little  by-play  with  the  butcher-knife  was 
going  on,  Capt.  Dobbins  had  entered  the  house,  and 
to  him  Mason  rushed  in  appeal.  Swearing  '*by  de 
hosts  of  heaben"  that  he  would  never  be  captured,  he 
piteously  begged  for  help  and  the  protection  of  his  em- 
ployer. And  in  Capt.  Dobbins  he  had  a  friend  who 
was  equal  to  any  emergency.  Calling  Mason  from  the 
room  his  employer  hurried  with  him  to  Josiah  Kellogg' s 
house,  then  one  of  the  finest  places  in  Erie,  with  a 
commanding  view  from  its  high  bank  over  lake  and 
bay.'  To  this  house  Mason  was  hurried,  and  Mrs. 
Kellogg  comprehended  the  situation  at  a  glance.  The 
fugitive  was  soon  so  carefully  hidden  that,  to  use  the 
Captain's  expression,  ''The  Devil  himself  couldn't 
have  found  him,  sir  !  " 

Expeditious  as  they  were,  they  had  been  none  too 
quick.     Capt.  Dobbins  had  scarcely  regained  his  own 


between  French  and  Holland  streets.    It  is  still  standing. 


250  Underground  Trails, 

door,  when  the  two  slave-hunters  came  back  with  the 
sheriff  and  demanded  Mason. 

*'  Search  the  premises  at  your  pleasure,"  was  the  re- 
sponse. 

The  house  was  ransacked  from  cellar  to  garret,  but, 
needless  to  say.  Mason  was  not  to  be  found. 

There  was  living  in  Erie  at  that  time  a  big  burly 
negro,  Lemuel  Gates  by  name,  whose  strength  was 
only  surpassed  by  his  good  nature.  He  was  willing 
enough  to  lend  himself  to  the  cause  of  humanity.  The 
Captain  owned  a  very  fast  horse,  and  while  the  officer 
and  his  disappointed  and  suspicious  companions  were 
still  lurking  around,  just  at  nightfall,  he  harnessed 
his  horse  into  the  buggy  and  seated  the  Hercules  by 
his  side.  All  this  was  quietly  done  in  the  barn  with 
closed  doors.  At  a  given  signal,  the  servant-girl  threw 
open  the  doors,  the  Captain  cracked  his  whip,  and  out 
they  dashed  at  full  speed.  He  took  good  care  to  be 
seen  and  recognized  by  the  spies  on  watch,  and  then 
laid  his  course  for  Hamlin  Russell's  house  at  Belle 
Valley.  Mr.  Russell  was  a  noted  Abolitionist,  and 
lived  on  a  cross-road  between  the  Wattsburg  and  Lake 
Pleasant  roads.  Just  beyond  Marvintown,  at  Davison's, 
the  Lake  Pleasant  road  forks  off  from  the  Wattsburg 
road  to  the  right.  The  travelers  took  the  Lake  road. 
When  Mr.  Russell's  house  was  reached,  the  Captain 
slipped  a  half-eagle  into  the  hand  of  his  grinning  com- 
panion, with  the  needless  advice  that  it  would  be  well 
to  make  tracks  for  home  as  fast  as  possible.  Mr.  Rus- 
sell was  told  of  the  clever  ruse,  and  then  Capt.  Dobbins 


Underground  Trails.  251 

drove  leisurely  homeward.  At  the  junction  of  the  two 
roads  he  met  the  officer  and  his  comrades  in  hot  pursuit. 

•'  Where  is  Mason?  "  they  demanded. 

*'Find  out,  "  was  the  Captain's  only  answer,  as  he 
drove  quietly  along,  chuckling  to  himself  over  the  suc- 
cess of  his  strategy ;  while  the  slave-hunters  worked 
themselves  into  a  passion  over  a  fruitless  search  of  Mr. 
Russell's  innocent  premises. 

Early  one  morning  a  i^^  days  afterward,  as  Capt. 
Dobbins  was  on  the  bank  of  the  lake,  he  saw  a  vessel 
round  the  point  of  the  Peninsula,  sail  up  the  channel, 
and  cast  anchor  in  Misery  Bay,  then,  and  for  many 
years  afterwards,  a  favorite  anchorage  for  wind-bound 
vessels.  Soon  a  yawl  was  seen  to  put  off  for  the 
shore  with  the  master  of  the  vessel  aboard.  Capt. 
Dobbins  contrived  to  see  him  during  the  day,  and 
was  delighted  to  find  him  an  old  and  formerly 
intimate  shipmate.  The  ship-master  heartily  entered 
into  the  Captain's  plans,  and  it  was  agreed  to  put 
Mason  aboard  of  the  vessel  at  two  o'clock  the  next 
morning. 

At  the  time  of  which  we  write,  the  steamer  docks  and 
lumber-yards  which  later  were  built  along  the  shore  at 
that  point,  were  yet  undreamed  of,  and  the  waters  of 
the  bay  broke  unhindered  at  the  foot  of  the  high  bank 
on  which  stood  Mrs.  Kellogg' s  house,  where  Mason 
was  hid.  It  would  not  do  openly  to  borrow  a  boat, 
and  Capt.  Dobbins  had  no  small  difficulty  in  getting 
a  craft  for  the  conveyance  of  his  protege  to  the  vessel. 
At   last,    late   at   night,  a   little,  leaky  old   skiff  was 


252  Underground  Trails. 

temporarily  confiscated.  By  this  time  a  strong  breeze 
had  sprung  up,  and  it  was  difficult  to  approach  the 
shore.  A  tree  had  fallen  over  the  bank  with  its  top  in 
the  water,  and  the  Captain  found  precarious  anchorage 
for  his  leaky  tub  by  clinging  to  its  branches.  With  a 
cry  like  the  call  of  the  whip-poor-will  the  runaway  was 
summoned.  In  his  hurry  to  get  down  the  bank  he 
slipped  and  fell  headlong  into  the  fallen  treetop ; 
while  a  small  avalanche  of  stones  and  earth  came  crash- 
ing after  and  nearly  swamped  the  boat.  When  the 
boat  had  been  lightened  of  its  unexpected  cargo,  the 
voyage  across  the  bay  began.  The  poor  darky,  how- 
ever, was  no  sooner  sure  that  his  neck  was  not  broken 
by  the  tumble,  than  he  was  nearly  dead  with  the  fear 
of  drowning.  Their  boat,  a  little  skiff  just  big  enough 
for  one  person,  leaked  like  a  sieve,  and  soon  became 
water-logged  in  the  seaway.  Mason's  hat  was  a  stiff 
*'plug,"  a  former  gift  of  charity.  It  had  suffered 
sorely  by  the  plunge  down  the  bank,  but  its  ruin  was 
made  complete  by  the  Captain  ordering  its  owner  to 
fall  to  and  bail  out  the  boat  with  it.  The  brim  soon 
vanished,  but  the  upper  part  did  very  well  as  a  bucket ; 
and  the  owner  consoled  himself  that  in  thus  sacrificing 
his  hat  he  saved  his  life.  It  was  a  close  call  for  safety. 
The  Captain  tugged  away  at  the  oars  as  never  before, 
and  the  shivering  negro  scooped  away  for  dear  life  to 
keep  the  boat  afloat.  In  after  years  Capt.  Dobbins 
experienced  shipwreck  more  than  once,  but  he  used 
to  say  that  never  had  he  been  in  greater  peril  than 
when  making  that  memorable  trip  across  Presque  Isle 


Underground  Trails,  253 

Bay  in  the  wild  darkness  and  storm  of  midnight.  The 
vessel  was  at  length  reached.  She  was  loaded  with 
staves,  and  a  great  hole  was  made  in  the  deck  load, 
within  which  Mason  was  snugly  stowed  away,  while 
the  staves  were  piled  over  him  again.  Capt.  Dobbins 
reached  the  mainland  in  safety  before  daylight,  and 
during  the  morning  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
wind  haul  around  off  land,  when  the  vessel  weighed 
anchor  and  sailed  away. 

Knowing  that  pursuit  was  impossible  (there  were 
no  steam  tugs  on  the  bay  in  those  days),  Capt.  Dob- 
bins quietly  told  the  officer  that  he  was  tired  of  being 
watched,  and  that  if  he  would  come  along,  he  would 
show  him  where  Mason  was.  The  Captain  had  noti- 
fied some  of  his  friends,  and  when  the  bank  of  the  lake 
was  reached,  a  crowd  had  gathered,  for  the  affair  had 
created  quite  a  stir  in  the  village. 

"Do  you  see  that  sail?"  said  the  Captain,  pointing 
to  the  retreating  vessel. 

"  Well  ?  "  was  the  impatient  answer. 

**  Mason  is  aboard  of  her,"  was  the  quiet  reply. 
The  befooled  magistrate  of  the  law,  who  had  taken  great 
care  to  bring  handcuffs  for  his  expected  prisoner, 
acknowledged  himself  beaten  ;  while  the  '^nigger- 
chasers  ' '  were  glad  to  sneak  off,  followed  by  the  shouts 
and  jeers  of  the  crowd.  "  Pretty  well  done  —  for  a 
Democrat,"  said  Mr.  Russell  to  the  Captain  a  few  days 
afterwards.  ''After  your  conversion  to  our  principles 
you  will  make  a  good  Abolitionist. ' ' 

Some  years  after  the  event  above  narrated,  as  Capt. 


2  54  Underground  Trails. 

Dobbins'  was  in  the  cabin  of  his  vessel  as  she  lay  at 
Buffalo,  a  respectably-dressed  black  man  was  shown 
into  the  cabin.  It  was  Mason,  who  had  come  to  repay 
his  benefactor  with  thanks  and  even  with  proffered 
money.  He  had  settled  somewhere  back  of  Kingston, 
Ontario,  on  land  which  the  Canadian  Government  at 
that  time  gave  to  actual  settlers.  He  had  married  an 
amiable  woman,  and  was  prosperous  and  happy. 


I  give  the  following  incident  substantially  as  it  was 
set  down  for  me  by  Mr.  Frank  Henry : 

In  the  summer  of  1858  Mr.  Jehiel  Towner  (now 
deceased)  sent  me  a  note  from  the  city  of  Erie,  asking 
me  to  call  on  him  that  evening.  When  night  came  I 
rode  into  town  from  my  home  in  Harborcreek,  and  saw 
Mr.  Towner.  ''There  are  three  'passengers'  hidden 
in  town,  Henry, ' '  said  he,  ' '  and  we  must  land  them 
somewhere  on  the  Canada  shore.  You  are  just  the 
man  for  this  work;  will  you  undertake  to  get  them 
across  ? ' ' 

You  must  remember  that  we  never  had  anything  to 
do  with  ''runaway  niggers"  in  those  days,  nor  even 
with  "fugitive  slaves";  we  simply  "assisted  pas- 
sengers." I  knew  well  enough  that  there  was  a 
big  risk  in  the  present  case,  but  I  promised  to  do 
my  part,  and  so  after  talking  over  matters  a  little  I 
drove  home. 


^  Capt.  D.  P.  Dobbins  was  for  many  years  a  distinguished  resident  of 
Buffalo.  As  vessel  master,  Government  official,  and  especially  as  inventor 
of  the  Dobbins  life-boat,  he  acquired  a  wide  reputation  ;  but  little  has  been 
told  of  his  Underground  Railroad  work.     He  died  in  1S92. 


Underground  Trails.  255 

The  next  night  just  about  dusk  a  wagon  was  driven 
into  my  yard.  The  driver,  one  Hamilton  Waters, 
was  a  free  mulatto,  known  to  everybody  around  Erie. 
He  had  brought  a  little  boy  with  him  as  guide,  for  he 
was  almost  as  blind  as  a  bat.  In  his  wagon  were  three 
of  the  strangest-looking  *  '■  passengers ' '  I  ever  saw  ;  I  can 
remember  how  oddly  they  looked  as  they  clambered  out 
of  the  wagon.  There  was  a  man  they  called  Sam,  a 
great  strapping  negro,  who  might  have  been  forty  years 
old.  He  was  a  loose-jointed  fellow,  with  a  head  like 
a  pumpkin,  and  a  mouth  like  a  cavern,  its  vast  circum- 
ference always  stretched  in  a  glorious  grin ;  for  no 
matter  how  badly  Sam  might  feel,  or  how  frightened, 
the  grin  had  so  grown  into  his  black  cheeks  that  it 
never  vanished.  I  remember  how,  a  few  nights  after, 
when  the  poor  fellow  was  scared  just  about  out  of  his 
wits,  his  grin,  though  a  little  ghastly,  was  as  broad 
as  ever.  Sam  was  one  of  the  queerest  characters  I  ever 
met.  His  long  arms  seemed  all  wrists,  his  legs  all 
ankles ;  and  when  he  walked,  his  nether  limbs  had  a 
flail-like  flop  that  made  him  look  like  a  runaway  wind- 
mill. The  bases  upon  which  rested  this  fearfully- 
and  wonderfully -made  superstructure  were  abundantly 
ample.  On  one  foot  he  wore  an  old  shoe — at  least 
number  twelve  in  size  —  and  on  the  other  a  heavy 
boot ;  and  his  trousers-legs,  by  a  grim  fatality,  were 
similarly  unbalanced,  for  while  the  one  was  tucked 
into  the  boot-top,  its  fellow,  from  the  knee  down,  had 
wholly  vanished.  Sam  wore  a  weather-beaten  and 
brimless  "tile"  on  his  head,  and  in  his  hand  carried 


256  Underground  Trails. 

an  old-fashioned  long-barreled  rifle.  He  set  great 
store  by  his  ''  ole  smooth  bo',"  though  he  handled  it  in 
a  gingerly  sort  of  way,  that  suggested  a  greater  fear  of 
its  kicks  than  confidence  in  its  aim.  Sam's  compan- 
ions were  an  intelligent -looking  negro  about  twenty- 
five  years  old,  named  Martin,  and  his  wife,  a  pretty 
quadroon  girl,  with  thin  lips  and  a  pleasant  voice,  for 
all  the  world  like  Eliza  in  ^*  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin." 
She  carried  a  plump  little  piccaninny  against  her 
breast,  over  which  a  thin  shawl  was  tightly  drawn. 
She  was  an  uncommonly  attractive  young  woman,  and  I 
made  up  my  mind  then  and  there  that  she  shouldn't 
be  carried  back  to  slavery  if  I  had  any  say  in  the  matter. 

The  only  persons  besides  myself  who  knew  of  their 
arrival  were  William  P.  Trimble  and  Maj.  F.  L.  Fitch. 
The  party  was  conducted  to  the  old  Methodist  church 
in  Wesley ville,  which  had  served  for  a  long  time  as  a 
place  of  rendezvous  and  concealment.  Except  for  the 
regular  Sunday  services,  and  a  Thursday -night  prayer- 
meeting,  the  church  was  never  opened,  unless  for  an 
occasional  funeral,  and  so  it  was  as  safe  a  place  as  could 
well  have  been  found.  In  case  of  unexpected  intruders, 
the  fugitives  could  crawl  up  into  the  attic  and  remain 
as  safe  as  if  in  Liberia. 

It  was  my  plan  to  take  the  * '  passengers  ' '  from  the 
mouth  of  Four-Mile  Creek  across  the  lake  to  Long 
Point  light -house,  on  the  Canada  shore,  but  the  wind 
hung  in  a  bad  quarter  for  the  next  two  or  three  days, 
and  our  party  had  to  keep  in  the  dark.  One  rainy 
night,   however  —  it  was  a  miserable,  drizzling  rain. 


Underground  Trails,  257 

and  dark  as  Egypt  —  I  was  suddenly  notified  that  a 
sailboat  was  in  readiness  off  the  mouth  of  Four-Mile 
Creek.  At  first  I  was  at  a  loss  what  to  do.  I  didn't 
dare  go  home  for  provisions,  for  I  had  good  reason  to 
believe  that  my  house  was  nightly  watched  by  a 
cowardly  wretch,  whose  only  concern  was  to  secure  the 
$500  offered  by  Sam's  former  master  for  the  capture  of 
the  slaves.  In  the  vicinity  lived  a  well-to-do  farmer, 
a  devoted  pro-slavery  Democrat.  Notwithstanding  his 
politics,  I  knew  the  man  was  the  soul  of  honor,  and 
possessed  a  great  generous  heart.  So  I  marshaled  my 
black  brigade  out  of  the  church,  and  marched  them 
off,  through  the  rain,  single  file,  to  his  house.  In 
answer  to  our  knock,  our  friend  threw  open  the  door ; 
then,  with  a  thousand  interrogation  points  frozen  into 
his  face,  he  stood  for  a  minute,  one  hand  holding  a 
candle  above  his  head,  the  other  shading  his  eyes,  as 
he  stared  at  the  wet  and  shivering  group  of  darkies, 
the  very  picture  of  dumfounded  astonishment.  In  less 
time  than  it  takes  to  tell  it,  however,  he  grasped  the 
situation,  hustled  us  all  into  the  house  and  shut  the 
door  with  a  most  expressive  slam. 

'*  What  in does  all  this  mean?  "  was  his  pious 

ejaculation. 

He  saw  what  it  meant,  and  it  needed  but  few  words 
of  explanation  on  my  part.  ''They  are  a  party  of 
fugitives  from  slavery,"  said  I,  calling  our  friend  by 
name.  '*We  are  about  to  cross  the  lake  to  Canada; 
the  party  are  destitute  and  closely  pursued  ;  their  only 
crime  is  a  desire  for  freedom.     This  young  woman  and 


258  Underground  Trails. 

mother  has  been  sold  from  her  husband  and  child  to  a 
dealer  in  the  far  South,  and  if  captured,  she  will  be 
consigned  to  a  life  of  shame."  The  story  was  all  too 
common  in  those  days,  and  needed  no  fine  words. 
The  young  girl's  eyes  pleaded  more  forcibly  than  any 
words  I  could  have  spoken. 

* '  Well  —  what  do  you  want  of  me  ?  ' '  demanded  our 
host,  trying  hard  to  look  fierce  and  angry. 

^'  Clothing  and  provisions,"  I  replied. 

' '  Now  look  here, ' '  said  he,  in  his  gruffest  voice, 
**this  is  a  bad  job  —  bad  job."  Then,  turning  to  the 
negroes:  '*  Better  go  back.  Canada  is  full  of  runa- 
way niggers  now.  They're  freezin'  and  starvin'  by 
thousands.  Was  over  in  Canada  t'other  day.  Saw  six 
niggers  by  the  roadside,  with  their  heads  cut  off. 
Bones  of  niggers  danglin'  in  the  trees.  Crows  pickin' 
their  eyes  out.  You  better  go  back,  d'ye  hear?'' 
he  added,  turning  suddenly  towards  Sam. 

Poor  Sam  shook  in  his  shoes,  and  his  eyes  rolled  in 
terror.  He  fingered  his  cherished  smooth-bore  as 
though  uncertain  whether  to  shoot  his  entertainer,  or 
save  all  his  ammunition  for  Canada  crows,  while  he 
cast  a  helpless  look  of  appeal  upon  his  companions. 
The  young  woman,  however,  with  her  keener  insight, 
had  seen  through  the  sham  brusqueness  of  their  host ; 
and  although  she  was  evidently  appalled  by  the  horrible 
picture  of  what  lay  before  them  across  the  lake,  her 
heart  told  her  it  was  immeasurably  to  be  preferred  to  a 
return  to  the  only  fate  which  awaited  her  in  the  South. 
Her  thoughts  lay  in  her  face,  and  our  friend  read  them  ; 


Underground  Trails.  259 

and  not  having  a  stone  in  his  broad  bosom,  but  a  big, 
warm,  thumping  old  heart,  was  moved  to  pity  and  to 
aid.  He  set  about  getting  a  basket  of  provisions. 
Then  he  skirmished  around  and  found  a  blanket  and 
hood  for  the  woman ;  all  the  time  declaring  that  he 
never  would  help  runaway  niggers,  no  sir  !  and  draw- 
ing (for  Sam's  especial  delectation)  the  most  horrible 
pictures  of  Canadian  hospitality  that  he  could  conjure 
up.  ''You'll  find  'em  on  shore  waitin'  for  ye,  "  said 
he ;  ''they'll  catch  ye  and  kill  ye  and  string  ye  up  for 
a  scare-crow.  "  Seeing  that  Sam  was  coatless,  he 
stripped  off  his  own  coat  and  bundled  it  upon  the 
astonished  darky  with  the  consoling  remark  :  * '  When 
they  get  hold  of  you  they'll  tan  your  black  hide, 
stretch  it  for  drum-heads,  and  beat  '  God  Save  the 
Queen '  out  of  ye  every  day  in  the  year. ' ' 

All  being  in  readiness,  our  benefactor  plunged  his 
hand  into  his  pocket,  and  pulling  it  out  full  of  small 
change  thrust  it  into  the  woman's  hands,  still  urging 
them  to  go  back  to  the  old  life.  At  the  door  Sam 
turned  back  and  spoke  for  the  first  time  : 

"  Look  'e  hyar,  Massa,  you's  good  to  we  uns  an'  'fo' 
de  Lo'd  I  tank  yer.  Ef  enny  No' then  gemmen  hankah 
fur  my  chances  in  de  Souf,  I'  zign  in  dair  favo'.  'Fo' 
de  good  Lo'd  I  tank  ye,  Massa,  I  does,  shuah  .^" 

Here  Sam's  feelings  got  the  better  of  him,  and  we 
were  hurrying  off,  when  our  entertainer  said  : 

"See  here,  now,  Henry,  remember  you  were  never 
at  my  house  with  a  lot  of  damned  niggers  in  the  night. 
Do  you  understand  ?  ' ' 


26o  Underground  Trails. 

"AH  right,  sir.  You  are  the  last  man  who  would 
ever  be  charged  with  Abolitionism,  and  that's  the 
reason  why  we  came  here  tonight.     Mum  is  the  word. ' ' 

The  rain  had  stopped  and  the  stars  were  shining  in  a 
cheerful  way  as  we  all  trudged  down  the  wet  road  to 
the  lake  shore.  Our  boat  was  found  close  in  shore, 
and  Martin  and  his  wife  had  waded  out  to  it,  while 
Sam  and  I  stood  talking  in  low  tones  on  the  beach. 
Suddenly  a  crash  like  the  breaking  of  fence -boards  was 
heard  on  the  bank  near  by,  and  to  the  westward  of  us. 
We  looked  up  quickly  and  saw  the  form  of  a  man  climb 
over  the  fence  and  then  crouch  down  in  the  shadow. 
Up  came  Sam's  rifle,  and  with  a  hurried  aim  he  fired 
at  the  moving  object.  His  old  gun  was  trusty  and  his 
aim  true,  and  had  it  not  been  for  a  lucky  blow  from  my 
hand,  which  knocked  the  gun  upwards  just  as  he  fired, 
and  sent  the  ball  whistling  harmlessly  over  the  bank, 
there' d  have  been  one  less  mean  man  in  the  world,  and 
we  should  have  had  a  corpse  to  dispose  of.  I  scrambled 
up  the  bank,  with  my  heart  in  my  mouth,  I'll  confess, 
just  in  time  to  see  the  sneak  scurry  along  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  highway.  I  watched  a  long  time  at  the 
creek  after  the  boat  left,  and  seeing  no  one  astir  started 
for  home.  By  the  time  I  reached  the  Lake  road  the 
moon  had  come  up,  and  a  fresh  carriage -track  could  be 
plainly  seen.  I  followed  it  down  the  road  a  short  dis- 
tance, when  it  turned,  ran  across  the  sod,  and  ended 
at  the  fence,  which  had  been  freshly  gnawed  by  horses. 
It  then  turned  back  into  the  highway,  followed  up  the 
crossroad  to  Wesleyville,  and  thence  came  to  the  city. 


Underground  Trails.  261 

The  fugitives  reached  the  promised  land  in  safety, 
and  I  heard  from  them  several  times  thereafter.  The 
man  Sam  subsequently  made  two  or  three  successful 
trips  back  to  the  old  home,  once  for  a  wife  and  after- 
wards for  other  friends.  He  made  some  money  in  the 
Canada  oil  fields,  and  some  time  after  sent  me  $100, 
$50  for  myself  to  invest  in  books,  and  $50  for  the  fish- 
ermen who  carried  them  safely  across  to  Long  Point 
and  liberty. 


Of  all  the  places  which  have  sheltered  the  fugitive 
slave  there  is  none  better  known,  along  the  southeast- 
ern shore  of  Lake  Erie,  than  the  old  Methodist  church 
at  Wesleyville,  Erie  Co.,  Pennsylvania.  It  stands 
today  much  as  it  stood  a  half  century  since ;  though 
repairs  have  been  made  from  time  to  time,  and  of  late 
years  modern  coal  stoves  have  replaced  the  capacious 
but  fervid  old  wood-eaters  known  as  box -stoves.  Dedi- 
cated to  God,  it  has  been  doubly  hallowed  by  being 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  humanit}'.  To  more  than 
one  wretch,  worn  out  with  the  toils  of  a  long  flight,  it 
has  proved  a  glorious  house  of  refuge ;  and  if  safety 
lay  not  within  the  shadow  of  its  sacred  altar,  it  surely 
did  amidst  the  shadowy  gloom  of  its  dingy  garret. 

In  the  year  1856  there  lived  in  Caldwell  County, 
in  western  Kentucky,  a  well-to-do  farmer  named  Wil- 
son. He  owned  a  large  and  well-stocked  farm,  which 
he  had  inherited,  with  several  slaves,  from  his  father. 
Mr.  Wilson  was  an  easy-going  and  indulgent  master, 
and   reaped   a   greater   reward   of  affection    from    his 


262  Underground  Trails, 

*  *  people ' '  than  he  did  of  pecuniary  gain  from  his 
plantation.  In  the  autumn  of  the  above-named  year 
he  died,  and  his  servants  were  divided  among  the 
heirs,  who  lived  in  Daviess  County,  in  the  same  State. 
Two  of  the  slaves.  Jack  and  Nannie,  a  young  man  and 
his  sister,  fell  to  the  lot  of  a  hard  master  named  Wat- 
son. The  housekeeper  dying,  Nannie  was  taken  from 
the  field  to  fill  her  place.  Nothing  could  have  been 
worse  for  the  poor  girl.  She  was  handsome,  her  young 
master  a  brute.  Because  she  defended  her  honor  she 
was  cruelly  punished  and  locked  up  for  many  hours. 
Her  brother  succeeded  in  freeing  her,  and  together 
they  fled,  only  to  be  recaptured.  They  were  whipped 
so  terribly  that  the  girl  Nannie  died.  Jack  survived, 
heart-broken,  quiet  for  a  time,  but  with  a  growing  re- 
solve in  his  heart.  One  night  his  master  came  home 
from  a  debauch,  and  ordered  Jack  to  perform  some  un- 
reasonable and  impossible  task.  Because  the  poor  boy 
failed,  the  master  flew  at  him  with  an  open  knife.  It 
was  death  for  one  of  them.  The  image  of  poor  Nan, 
beaten  to  an  awful  death,  rose  before  Jack's  eyes.  In 
a  moment  he  became  a  tiger.  Seizing  a  cart-stake,  he 
dealt  his  master  a  blow  that  killed  him.  The  blood  of 
his  sister  was  avenged. 

Once  more  Jack  fled.  The  murder  of  the  master 
had  aroused  the  neighborhood.  Blood-hounds,  both 
brute  and  human,  scoured  the  woods  and  swamps ; 
flaming  handbills  offered  great  rewards  for  Jack  Wat- 
son, dead  or  alive.  With  incredible  cunning,  and 
grown  wary  as  a  wild  animal,  Jack  lurked  in  the  vicin- 


Underground  Trails.  263 

ity  a  long  time.  When  the  excitement  had  somewhat 
abated,  he  found  his  way  to  Salem,  Ohio,  and  was  for 
a  time  in  the  employ  of  a  worthy  Quaker  named  Bon- 
sell,  whose  descendants  still  live  in  that  locality.  It 
was  then  a  neighborhood  of  Friends,  and  Jack's  life 
among  them  brought  him  great  good.  He  learned  to 
read  and  write,  and  became  in  heart  and  conduct  a 
changed  man.  His  life,  however,  was  haunted  by  two 
ghastly  forms ;  and  as  often  as  the  image  of  his  mur- 
dered master  rose  before  him,  that  of  Nan  came  also 
to  justify  the  deed.  These  apparitions  wore  upon  him, 
and  made  his  life  unnatural  and  highly  sensitive.  On 
one  occasion,  while  in  Pittsburg,  he  saw  what  he  took 
to  be  the  ghost  of  his  murdered  master  coming  toward 
him  in  the  street.  He  turned  and  fled  in  abject  ter- 
ror, much  to  the  astonishment  of  all  passers-by.  Long 
afterward  he  learned  that  the  supposed  apparition  was 
a  half-brother  of  his  former  master. 

Jack  now  determined  to  devote  his  life  to  freeing  his 
countrymen  from  bondage.  In  due  time  he  found  his 
way  to  the  house  of  Mr.  John  Young,  a  noted  Aboli- 
tionist of  Wilmington  township,  in  Mercer  County, 
Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Young  was  one  of  the  first  men  in 
Mercer  County  to  proclaim  his  political  convictions  to 
the  world,  and  to  stand  by  them,  bravely  and  consist- 
ently, and  through  many  a  dangerous  hour,  until  slavery 
was  a  thing  of  the  past.  No  man  ever  asked  brave 
John  Young  for  help  and  was  refused.  His  house  was 
known  among  Abolitionists  far  and  wide  as  a  safe  sta- 
tion for  the  Underground  Road. 


264  Underground  Trails, 

While  Jack  was  at  Mr.  Young's  he  fell  in  with  a 
young  minister,  himself  a  former  fugitive  from  Ken- 
tucky, and  who  was  at  the  time  an  earnest  Baptist 
preacher  in  Syracuse,  N.  Y.  This  friend,  named  Jarm 
W.  Loguen,  promised  Jack  shelter  if  he  could  but 
reach  Syracuse,  and  so  Jack  was  *  *  forwarded  ' '  along 
the  road. 

When  he  reached  Erie,  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Elli- 
ott, of  Harborcreek,  carried  him  to  Wesleyville.  His 
pursuers  were  incidentally  heard  of  as  being  in  the 
vicinity  of  Meadville,  and  it  was  necessary  to  proceed 
with  great  caution  ;  so  Jack  was  hidden  away  for  a  few 
days  beneath  the  shelter  of  the  old  church  roof. 

It  so  happened  that  at  this  time  a  protracted  meeting 
was  in  progress  in  the  church.  It  was  a  great  awaken- 
ing, well  remembered  yet  in  the  neighborhood.  There 
were  meetings  every  night,  though  the  church  was 
shut  up  during  the  day.  During  the  evening  meetings 
Jack  would  stay  quietly  concealed  in  the  garret ;  but 
after  the  congregation  dispersed  and  the  key  was 
turned  in  the  door,  he  would  descend,  stir  up  a  rousing 
fire,  and  make  himself  as  comfortable  as  possible  until 
the  meeting-hour  came  round  again.  It  is  related  that 
Mr.  David  Chambers  generously  kept  the  house  sup- 
plied with  fuel ;  and  his  boys,  to  whose  lot  fell  the 
manipulation  of  the  wood-pile,  were  in  constant  won- 
der at  the  disappearance  of  the  wood.  ''  I  shan't  be 
very  sorry  when  this  revival  winds  up, ' '  said  one  of  them 
confidentially  to  the  other ;  ^ '  it  takes  an  awful  lot  of 
wood  to  run  a  red-hot  revival. ' '     The  meanwhile  black 


Underground  Trails,  265 

Jack  toasted  his  shins  by  the  revival  fire,  and  found,  no 
doubt,  a  deal  of  comfort  in  the  sacred  atmosphere  of 
the  sheltering  church. 

The  meetings  grew  in  interest  with  every  night. 
Scores  were  gathered  into  the  fold  of  the  church,  and 
the  whole  community,  young  and  old,  were  touched  by 
the  mysterious  power.  The  meetings  were  conducted 
by  the  Rev.  John  McLean,  afterwards  a  venerable 
superannuate  of  the  East  Ohio  Conference,  yet  living  (at 
least  a  few  years  ago)  in  Canfield,  Mahoning  County, 
Ohio ;  by  the  Rev.  B.  Marsteller,  and  others.  The 
interest  came  to  a  climax  one  Sunday  night.  A  most 
thrilling  sermon  had  been  preached.  Every  heart  was 
on  fire  with  the  sacred  excitement,  and  it  seemed  as  if 
the  Holy  Spirit  were  almost  tangible  in  their  very  midst. 
The  church  was  full,  even  to  the  gallery  that  surrounds 
three  sides  of  the  interior.  Methodists  are  not  —  at 
least  were  not  in  those  days  —  afraid  to  shout;  and 
Jack,  hidden  above  the  ceiling,  had  long  been  a  rapt 
listener  to  the  earnest  exhortations.  His  murder,  his 
people  in  bondage,  all  the  sorrows  and  sins  of  his 
eventful  life,  rose  before  his  eyes.  Overcome  with 
contrition,  he  knelt  upon  the  rickety  old  boards,  and 
poured  out  his  troubles  in  prayer.  Meanwhile,  down 
below,  the  excitement  grew.  The  Rev.  James  Sullivan 
made  an  impassioned  exhortation,  and  when  he  finished, 
the  altar  was  crowded  with  penitents.  The  service  re- 
solved itself  into  a  general  prayer-meeting.  Men 
embraced  each  other  in  the  aisles,  or  knelt  in  tearful 
prayer  together ;    while  shouts  of  victory  and  groans 


266  Underground  Trails. 

of  repentance  filled  the  church.  God  bless  the  good 
old-fashioned  shouting  Methodists,  who  shouted  all 
the  louder  as  the  Lord  drew  near  !  Some  of  the  old 
revival  hymns,  sent  rolling  across  winter  fields,  and 
throbbing  and  ringing  through  the  midnight  air,  would 
set  the  very  universe  rejoicing,  and  scatter  the  legions 
of  Satan  in  dismay.  Alas  that  the  religion  of  lungs  — 
the  shouting,  noisy,  devout,  glorious  old  worship,  is  pass- 
ing away  !  The  whispers  of  the  Devil  too  often  drown 
the  modulations  of  modern  prayer,  and  instead  of  glori- 
fied visions  of  angels  and  the  saints,  the  eyes  of  modern 
worshipers  rest  weariedly  upon  the  things  of  the  world. 

As  the  tide  of  excitement  swelled  higher  and  wilder 
that  night,  it  caught  poor  Jack,  up  in  the  garret. 
Through  narrow  cracks  he  could  see  the  emotions  and 
devotions  of  the  audience ;  and  in  his  enthusiasm  he 
wholly  forgot  that  he  was  in  concealment  and  his 
presence  known  to  only  two  or  three  of  the  worshipers. 

''Come  up,  sinners,  come  up  to  the  Throne  of 
Grace  and  cast  your  heavy  burdens  down, ' '  called  the 
pastor,  his  face  aglow  with  exercise  and  emotion,  and 
his  heart  throbbing  with  exultation.  ''Praise  be  to 
God  on  High  for  this  glorious  harvest  of  souls. ' ' 

"Glory,  glory,  amen  !  "  rose  from  all  parts  of  the 
church. 

"Glory,  glory,  amen!"  came  back  a  voice  from 
the  unknown  above. 

The  hubbub  was  at  such  a  pitch  down  stairs  that 
Jack's  unconscious  response  was  scarcely  heard;  but 
to  those  in  the  gallery  it  was  plainly  audible. 


Underground  Trails,  267 

^^Lord   God   of  Sabbaoth,"    prayed    the   minister, 

*  *  come  down  upon  us  tonight.  Send  Thy  Spirit  into 
our  midst !  ' ' 

*  *  Amen  !  glory  !  hallelujah  !  ' '  shouted  Jack  in  the 
garret. 

The  people  in  the  gallery  were  in  holy  fear.  *  *  It  is 
Gabriel,"  they  said. 

*  *  We  come  to  Thee,  Lord  !  We  come,  we  come  ! ' ' 
cried  the  repentent  sinners  down  stairs. 

"  I  come,  I  come,  glory  to  God,  hallelujah,  amen  !  " 
shouted  back  the  Gabriel  in  the  garret,  clapping  his 
hands  in  the  fervor  of  his  ecstacy. 

All  at  once  his  Abolition  friends  below  heard  him. 
They  were  struck  with  consternation  and  looked  at 
each  other  in  dismay.  If  Jack  was  discovered,  there 
would  be  trouble ;  they  must  quiet  him  at  any  hazard. 

*  *  The  idea  of  that  nigger  getting  the  power  in  the 
garret !  A  stop  must  be  put  to  that  at  once.  A 
revival  in  full  blast  is  an  unusual  treat  for  an  Under- 
ground Railroad  traveler ;  he  should  take  with  grati- 
tude what  he  could  hear,  and  keep  still  for  the  safety 
of  his  skin."  So  thought  his  frightened  friends,  who 
at  once  cast  about  for  means  to  quiet  him. 

Now  it  so  happened  —  how  fortunate  that  there  is 
always  a  way  out  of  a  dilemma  !  —  that  the  old  stove- 
pipe, which  connected  with  the  chimney  in  the  attic, 
frequently  became  disconnected ;  and  on  more  than 
one  occasion  incipient  fires  had  started  among  the  dry 
boards  of  the  garret  floor.  The  people  were  used  to 
seeing  the  boys  go  aloft  to  look  after  the  safety  of  the 


268  Underground  Trails. 

house  ;  so,  when  Dempster  M.  Chambers,  a  son  of  Mr. 
Stewart  Chambers,  inspired  by  a  happy  thought,  scram- 
bled up  the  ladder  and  crawled  through  the  trap-door 
into  the  gloom,  those  who  noticed  it  thought  only  that 
the  old  stove-pipe  had  slipped  out,  and  continued  to 
throw  their  sins  as  fuel  into  the  general  religious 
blaze  ;  or  thinking  of  the  fires  of  hell,  gave  little  heed 
to  lesser  flames.  Jack  was  soon  quieted,  and  the  meet- 
ing, having  consumed  itself  with  its  own  fervor,  broke 
up  without  further  incident.  There  is  no  doubt,  how- 
ever, that  certain  worthy  people  who  were  seated  in  the 
gallery  have  ever  stoutly  maintained  that  the  Angel 
Gabriel  actually  replied  to  the  prayers  of  that  memor- 
able night.  ^ 

In  due  time  Jack  Watson  reached  the  home  of  his 
friend,  the  Rev.  Jarm  W.  Loguen  j  and  during  the  dark 
days  of  the  War  he  rendered  valuable  aid  to  the  Union 
cause  along  the  Kentucky  and  Virginia  borders,  and  in 
one  guerrilla  skirmish  he  lost  his  left  arm.  A  few 
years  since  he  was  still  living  on  a  preempted  land- 
claim  in  Rice  County,  Kansas. 

The  following  incident,  connected  with  Watson's 
career,  will  not  be  out  of  place  in  closing  this  sketch  : 

Some  years  since  the  Rev.  Glezen  Fillmore,  a 
famous  pioneer  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 

1  I  had  the  facts  of  this  experience  from  Mr.  Frank  Henry,  and  tirst 
wrote  them  out  and  printed  them  in  the  Erie  Gazette  in  1880.  (Ah,  Time, 
why  hasten  so  !)  In  189,^  H.  U.  Johnson  of  Orwell,  O.,  published  a 
book  entitled  "  From  Dixie  to  Canada,  Romances  and  Realities  of  the 
Underground  Railroad,"  in  which  a  chapter  is  devoted  to  Jack  Watson, 
and  this  experience  at  the  Wesleyville  church  is  narrated,  considerably 
embellished,  but  in  parts  with  striking  similarity  to  the  version  for  which 
Frank  Henry  and  I  were  responsible.  Mr.  Johnson  gives  no  credit  for  his 
facts  to  any  source. 


Underground  Trails,  269 

Buffalo,  and  for  more  than  half  a  century  an  honored 
member  of  the  Genesee  Conference,  was  engaged  in 
raising  funds  for  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society.  One 
day  his  cousin,  the  late  ex-President  Millard  Fillmore, 
rode  out  from  Buffalo  to  visit  him.  During  the  con- 
versation the  venerable  preacher  related  the  story  of 
Watson's  escape,  as  Watson  himself  had  told  it  while 
at  Fillmore's  Underground  Railroad  depot.  The 
former  President  was  strongly  touched  by  the  story, 
and  at  its  close  he  drew  a  check  for  fifty  dollars  for  the 
Freedmen.  *■ '  Thank  you,  thank  you, ' '  said  the  good 
old  parson.  '*  I  was  praying  that  the  Lord  would  open 
your  heart  to  give  ten  dollars,  and  here  are  fifty. ' ' 

No  study  of  Underground  Railroad  work  in  this 
region,  even  though,  like  the  present  paper,  it  aims  to 
be  chiefly  anecdotal,  can  neglect  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  it  was  a  Buffalo  man  in  the  Presidential  chair 
who,  by  signing  the  Fugitive  Slave  act  of  1850,  brought 
upon  his  head  the  maledictions  of  the  Abolitionists, 
who  were  so  stimulated  thereby  in  their  humanitarian 
law-breaking,  that  the  most  active  period  in  Under- 
ground Railroad  work  dates  from  the  stroke  of  Millard 
Fillmore's  pen  which  sought  to  put  a  stop  to  it.  No 
passage  in  American  history  displays  more  acrimony 
than  this.  Wherever  the  friends  of  the  negro  were  at 
work  on  Underground  lines,  Mr.  Fillmore  was  de- 
nounced in  the  most  intemperate  terms.  In  his  home 
city  of  Buffalo,  some  who  had  hitherto  prided  them- 
selves upon  his  distinguished  acquaintance,  estranged 
themselves  from  him,  and  on  his  return  to  Buffalo  he 


270  Underground  Trails. 

found  cold  and  formal  treatment  from  people  whom  he 
had  formerly  greeted  as  friends.  Insults  were  offered 
him  ;  and  the  changed  demeanor  of  many  of  his  towns- 
men showed  itself  even  in  the  church  which  he 
attended.  Certain  ardent  souls  there  were  who  refused 
any  longer  to  worship  where  he  did.^  Mr.  Fillmore 
met  all  these  hostile  demonstrations,  as  he  sustained 
the  angry  protests  and  denunciations  of  the  Abolition- 
ists in  general,  in  dignified  impurturbability,  resting 
his  case  upon  the  constitutionality  of  his  conduct. 
The  act  of  1850  reaffirmed  the  act  of  1793,  and  both 
rested  upon  the  explicit  provision  in  the  Constitution 
which  declares  that  *^no  person  held  to  service  or 
labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into 
another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation 
therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor ;  but 
shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  may  be  due. ' '  Obviously,  so  far  as  this 
section  was  concerned,  many  people  of  the  North  were 
in  rebellion  against  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  for  many  years  before  the  Civil  War.  That  the 
work  of  the  Underground  Railroad  was  justifiable  in 
the  humanitarian  aspect  needs  no  argument  now.  But 
the  student  of  that  period  cannot  overcome  the  legal 
stand  taken    by  Mr.  Fillmore,  his  advisers  and  sym- 

1  Such  an  one  was  the  anti-slavery  worker,  Sallie  HoUey,  who  had  for- 
merly taken  great  pleasure  in  the  sermons  of  Mr.  Fillmore's  pastor,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Hosmer  of  the  Unitarian  Church.  When  Mr.  Fillmore  returned 
to  Buffalo  and  was  seen  again  in  his  accustomed  seat,  Miss  HoUey  refused 
to  attend  there.  "I  cannot  consent,"  she  wrote,  "that  my  name  shall 
stand  on  the  books  of  a  church  that  will  countenance  voting  for  any  pro- 
slavery  presidential  candidate.  Think  of  a  woman-whipper  and  a  baby- 
stealer  being  countenanced  as  a  Christian  ! "  —  See  "  A  Life  for  Liberty," 
edited  by  John  White  Chadwick,  pp.  60,  69. 


Under grotmd  Trails,  271 

pathizers,  unless  he  asserts,  as  Mr.  Seward  asserted, 
that  the  provision  of  the  Constitution  relating  to  the 
rendition  of  slaves  was  of  no  binding  force.  "The  law 
of  nations,"  he  declared,  "disavows  such  compacts  — 
the  law  of  nature  written  on  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  men  repudiates  them.'"  This  was  met  by  the 
plausible  assertion  that  "the  hostility  which  was 
directed  against  the  law  of  1850  would  have  been 
equally  violent  against  any  law  which  effectually  car- 
ried out  the  provision  of  the  Constitution.'"^  During 
the  years  that  followed,  efforts  were  made  to  recover 
fugitive  slaves  under  this  law.  Special  officers  were 
appointed  to  execute  it,  but  in  most  Northern  com- 
munities they  were  regarded  with  odium,  and  every 
possible  obstacle  put  in  the  way  of  the  discharge  of 
their  offensive  duties.  Many  tragic  affairs  occurred ; 
but  the  organization  of  the  Underground  Railroad  was 
too  thorough,  its  operation  was  in  the  hands  of  men  too 
discreet  and  determined,  to  be  seriously  disturbed  by  a 
law  which  found  so  little  moral  support  in  the  com- 
munities through  which  its  devious  trails  ran.  Thus  the 
work  went  on,  through  civil  contention  and  bloody 
war,  until  the  Emancipator  came  to  loose  all  shackles, 
to  put  an  end  to  property  in  slaves,  and  to  stop  all 
work,  because  abolishing  all  need,  of  the  Underground 
Railroad. 


*  See  Seward's  "  Works,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  65,  et  seq. 

^  See  Chamberlain's  "  Biography  of  Millard  Fillmore,"  p,  136. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets. 


NIAGARA  AND  THE  POETS. 


ON  A  DAY  in  July,  1804,  a  ruddy-faced,  hand- 
some young  Irishman,  whose  appearance  must 
have  commanded  unusual  attention  in  wild 
frontier  surroundings,  came  out  of  the  woods  that 
overlooked  Lake  Erie,  picking  his  way  among  the 
still-standing  stumps,  and  trudged  down  the  Indian 
trail,  which  had  not  long  been  made  passable  for 
wagons.  Presently  he  came  into  the  better  part  of  the 
road,  named  Willink  Avenue,  passed  a  dozen  scattered 
houses,  and  finally  stopped  at  John  Crow's  log  tavern, 
the  principal  inn  of  the  infant  Buffalo.  He  was  dusty, 
tired,  and  disgusted  with  the  fortune  that  had  brought 
an  accident  some  distance  back  in  the  woods,  compel- 
ling him  to  finish  this  stage  of  his  journey,  not  merely 
on  foot,  but  disabled.  Here,  surrounded  by  more 
Indians  than  whites,  he  lodged  for  a  day  or  so  before 
continuing  his  journey  to  Niagara  Falls ;  and  here, 
according  to  his  own  testimony,  he  wrote  a  long  poem, 
which  was  not  only,  in  all  probability,  the  first  poem 
ever  composed  in  Buffalo,  and  one  of  the  bitterest 
tirades  against  America  and  American  institutions  to 
be  found  in  literature ;  but  which  contained,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  discover,  the  first  allusion  to  Ni- 
agara Falls,  written  by  one  who  actually  traveled 
thither,  in  the  poetry  of  any  language. 


2  76  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

The  poetry  of  Niagara  Falls  is  contemporary  with 
the  first  knowledge  of  the  cataract  among  civilized 
men.  One  may  make  this  statement  with  positiveness, 
inasmuch  as  the  first  book  printed  in  Europe  which 
mentions  Niagara  Falls  contains  a  poem  in  which  allu- 
sion is  made  to  that  wonder.  This  work  is  the  excess- 
ively rare  "Des  Sauvages"  of  Champlain  (Paris, 
1604),'  in  which,  after  the  dedication,  is  a  sonnet, 
inscribed  *'Le  Sievr  de  la  Franchise  av  discovrs  Dv 
Sievr  Champlain."  It  seems  proper,  in  quoting  this 
first  of  all  Niagara  poems,  to  follow  as  closely  as  may 
be  in  modern  type  the  archaic  spelling  of  the  original : 

Mvses,  si  vous  chantez,  vrayment  ie  vous  conseille 

Que  vous  louez  Champlain,  pour  estre  courageux  : 
Sans  crainte  des  hasards,  11  a  veu  tant  de  lieux, 

Que  ses  relations  nous  contentent  I'oreille. 
II  a  veu  le  Perou,^  Mexique  &  la  Merueille 

Du  Vulcan  infernal  qui  vomit  tant  de  feux, 
Et  les  saults  Mocosans,^  qui  offensent  les  yeux 

De  ceux  qui  osent  voir  leur  cheute  nonpareille. 


1  For  the  knowledge  that  the  first  mention  of  Niagara  Falls  is  in  Cham- 
plain's  "  Des  Sauvages,"  we  are  indebted  to  the  Hon.  Peter  A.  Porter  of 
Niagara  Falls,  who  recently  discovered,  by  comparison  of  early  texts, 
that  the  allusions  to  the  falls  in  Marc  Lescarbot's  "  Histoire  de  la  Nouvelle 
France"  (1609),  heretofore  attributed  to  Jacques  Cartier,  are  really  quota- 
tions from  "  Des  Sauvages,"  published  some  five  years  before.  There  is, 
apparently,  no  warrant  for  the  oft-repeated  statement  that  Cartier,  in  1535, 
was  the  first  white  man  to  hear  of  the  falls.  That  distinction  passes  to 
Champlain,  who  heard  of  them  in  1603,  and  whose  first  book,  printed  at 
the  end  of  that  year  or  early  in  1604,  gave  to  the  world  its  first  knowledge 
of  the  great  cataract.— ^S^^  "  Champlain  not  Cartier,"  by  Peter  A.  Porter, 
Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y.,  1899. 

3  Champlain  a  bien  et^  jusqu'k  Mexico,  comme  on  peut  le  voir  dans  son 
voyage  aux  Indes  Occidentales  ;  mais  il  ne  s'est  pas  rendu  au  P^rou,  que 
nous  sachions. —  Note  in  Quebec  reprint,  iS-jQ.  Nor  had  he  been  to 
Niagara. 

3  Mocosa  est  le  nom  ancien  de  la  Virginie.  Cette  expression,  saults 
Mocosans,  semble  donner  k  entendre  que,  d^s  1603  au  moins,  Ton  avait 
quelque  connaissance  de  la  grande  chute  de  Niagara.— iV.?/<?  in  Quebec 
reprint,  187O, 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  277 

II  nous  promet  encor  de  passer  plus  auant, 
Reduire  les  Gentils,  &  trouuer  le  Leuant, 

Par  le  Nort,  ou  le  Su,  pour  aller  k  la  Chine. 

C'est  charitablement  tout  pour  I'amour  de  Dieu. 

Fy  des  lasches  poltrons  qui  ne  bougent  d'vn  lieu  ! 
Leur  vie,  sans  mentir,  me  paroist  trop  mesquine. 

I  regret  that  some  research  has  failed  to  discover 
any  further  information  regarding  the  poet  De  la  Fran- 
chise. Obviously,  he  took  rather  more  than  the  per- 
missible measure  of  poet's  license  in  saying  that  Cham- 
plain  had  seen  Peru,  a  country  far  beyond  the  known 
range  of  Champlain's  travels.  But  in  the  phrase  ^^  les 
saults  Mocosans^ ' '  the  falls  of  Mocosa,  we  have  the 
ancient  name  of  the  undefined  territory  afterwards 
labeled  *^  Virginia."  The  intent  of  the  allusion  is 
made  plainer  by  Marc  Lescarbot,  who  in  1610  wrote  a 
poem  in  which  he  speaks  of  ''great  falls  which  the 
Indians  say  they  encounter  in  ascending  the  St.  Law- 
rence as  far  as  the  neighborhood  of  Virginia. ' ' '  The 
allusion  can  only  be  to  Niagara. 

It  is  gratifying  to  find  our  incomparable  cataract  a 
theme  for  song,  even  though  known  only  by  aboriginal 
report,  thus  at  the  very  dawn  of  exploration  in  this 
part  of  America.  It  is  fitting,  too,  that  the  French 
should  be  the  first  to  sing  of  what  they  discovered. 
More  than  a  century  after  De  la  Franchise  and  Lescar- 
bot, a  Frenchman  who  really  saw  the  falls  introduced 
them  to  the  muse,  though  only  by  a  quotation.     This 

1  "  Lescarbot  ^crit,  en  1610,  une  pi^ce  de  vers  dans  laquelle  il  parle  des 

t rands  sauts  que  les  sauvages  disent  rencontrer  en  remontant  le  Saint- 
aurent    jusqu'au  voisinage  de  la  Virginie." — Benj.  Suite,  "'Melanges 
D'' Histoire  et  de  Litterature,'''  p.  425. 


2  yS  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

was  Father  Charlevoix,  who,  writing  ^Trom  the  Fall 
of  Niagara,  May  14,  1721,"  to  the  Duchess  of  Lesdi- 
guieres,  was  moved  to  aid  his  description  by  quoting 
poetry.  '^Ovid,"  the  priest  wrote  to  the  duchess, 
**  gives  us  the  description  of  such  another  cataract, 
situated  according  to  him  in  the  delightful  valley  of 
Tempe.  I  will  not  pretend  that  the  country  of  Niag- 
ara is  2LS  fine  as  that,  though  I  believe  its  cataract  much 
the  noblest  of  the  two, ' '  and  he  thereupon  quotes  these 
lines  from  the  *'  Metamorphoses  ": 

Est  nemus  Hsemoniae,  prgerupta  quod  undique  claudit 
Sylva  ;  vocant  Tempe,  per  quae  Peneus  ab  imo 
Effusus  Pindo  spumosis  volvitur  undis, 
Dejectisque  gravi  tenues  agitantia  fumos 
Nubila  conducit,  summisque  aspergine  sylvas, 
Impluit,  et  sonitu  plusquam  vicina  fatigat. 

It  would  be  strange  if  there  were  not  other  impres- 
sionable Frenchmen  who  composed  or  quoted  verses 
expressive  of  Niagara's  grandeur,  during  the  eighty- 
one  years  that  elapsed  between  the  French  discovery 
of  Niagara  Falls  and  the  English  Conquest  —  a  period 
of  over  three-quarters  of  a  century  during  which 
earth's  most  magnificent  cataract  belonged  to  France. 
But  if  priest  or  soldier,  coureur-de-bois  or  verse-maker 
at  the  court  of  Louis  said  aught  in  meter  of  Niagara  in 
all  that  time,  I  have  not  found  it. 

A  little  thunder  by  Sir  William  Johnson's  guns  at 
Fort  Niagara,  a  little  blood  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham, 
and  Niagara  Falls  was  handed  over  to  Great  Britain. 
Four  years  after  the  Conquest  English  poetry  made  its 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  279 

first  claim  to  our  cataract.  In  1764  appeared  that 
ever-delightful  work,  ''The  Traveller,  or,  a  Prospect 
of  Society,"  wherein  we  read  : 

Have  we  not  seen  at  pleasure's  lordly  call 

The  smiling  long-frequented  village  fall? 

Behold  the  duteous  son,  the  sire  decayed, 

The  modest  matron  or  the  blushing  maid, 

Forced  from  their  homes,  a  melancholy  train, 

To  traverse  climes  beyond  the  western  main  ; 

Where  wild  Oswego  spreads  her  swamps  around 

And  Niagara'  stuns  with  thundering  sound. 

Even  now,  perhaps,  as  there  some  pilgrim  strays 

Through  tangled  forests  and  through  dangerous  ways. 

Where  beasts  with  man  divided  empire  claim. 

And  the  brown  Indian  marks  with  murderous  aim  ; 

There,  while  above  the  giddy  tempest  flies, 

And  all  around  distressful  yells  arise. 

The  pensive  exile,  bending  with  his  woe, 

To  stop  too  fearful  and  too  faint  to  go. 

Casts  a  long  look  where  England's  glories  shine. 

And  bids  his  bosom  sympathize  with  mine.^ 

Obviously,  Oliver  Goldsmith's  **  Traveller, "  in  its 
American  allusions,  reflected  the  current  literature  of 
those  years  when  Englishmen  heard  more  of  Oswego 

1  The  pronunciation  of  "  Niagara"  here,  the  reader  will  remark,  is  neces- 
sarily with  the  primary  accent  on  the  third  syllable  ;  the  correct  pronunci- 
ation, as  eminent  authorities  maintain  ;  and,  as  I  hold,  the  more  musical. 
"  Ni-ag'-a-ra"  gives  us  one  hard  syllable  ;  "  Ni  [or  better,  -neej  -a-ga'-ra" 
makes  each  syllable  end  in  a  vowel,  and  softens  the  word  to  the  ear. 
"  Ni-ag'-a-ra "  would  have  been  impossible  to  the  Iroquois  tongue.  But 
the  word  is  now  too  fixed  in  its  perverted  usage  to  make  reform  likely,  and 
we  may  expect  to  hear  the  harsh  "  Ni-ag'-a-ra"  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

2  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  as  is  well  known,  was  responsible  for  a  number  of 
lines  in  "  The  Traveller."     In  the  verses  above  quoted  the  line 

"  To  stop  too  fearful  and  too  faint  to  go  " 
is  attributed  to  him.     Thus  near  does  the  mighty  Johnson,  the  "  Great 
Cham  of  Literature,"  come  to  legitimate  inclusion  among  the  poets  of 
Niagara  ! 


28o  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

than  they  ever  have  since.  Niagara  and  Oswego  were 
uttermost  points  told  of  in  the  dispatches,  during  that 
long  war,  reached  and  held  by  England's  '*  far-flung 
battle  line";  but  if  Britain's  poets  found  any  inspira- 
tion in  Niagara's  mighty  fount  for  a  half  century  after 
Goldsmith,  I  know  it  not. 

And  this  brings  us  again  to  our  first  visiting  poet, 
Tom  Moore,  whose  approach  to  Niagara  by  way  of 
Buffalo  in  1804  has  been  described.  Penning  an 
epistle  in  rhyme  from  ^'Buffalo,  on  Lake  Erie,"  to 
the  Hon.  W.  R.  Spencer  —  writing,  we  are  warranted 
in  fancying,  after  a  supper  of  poor  bacon  and  tea,  or 
an  evening  among  the  loutish  Indians  who  hung  about 
Crow's  log-tavern  —  he  recorded  his  emotions  in  no 
amiable  mood : 

Even  now,  as  wandering  upon  Erie's  shore 
I  hear  Niagara's  distant  cataract  roar,i 
I  sigh  for  home  —  alas  !  these  weary  feet 
Have  many  a  mile  to  journey,  ere  we  meet. 

Niagara  in  1804  was  most  easily  approached  from 
the  East  by  schooner  on  Lake  Ontario  from  Oswego, 
though  the  overland  trail  through  the  woods  was  begin- 
ning to  be  used.  Moore  came  by  the  land  route.  The 
record  of  the  journey  is  to  be  found  in  the  preface  to 
his  American  Poems,  and  in  his  letters  to  his  mother, 

^  This  is  not  necessarily  hyperbole,  by  any  means.  Before  the  Niagara 
region  was  much  settled,  filled  with  the  din  of  towns,  the  roar  of  trains, 
screech  of  whistles  and  all  manner  of  ear-offending  sounds,  Niagara's  voice 
could  be  heard  for  many  miles.  Many  early  travelers  testify  to  the  same 
effect  as  Moore.  An  early  resident  of  Buffalo,  the  late  Hon.  Lewis  F. 
Allen,  has  told  me  that  many  a  time,  seated  on  the  veranda  of  his  house  on 
Niagara  Street  near  Ferry,  in  the  calm  of  a  summer  evening,  he  has 
heard  the  roar  of  Niagara  Falls. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  281 

published  for  the  first  time  in  his  '*  Memoirs,  Journal 
and  Correspondence,"  edited  by  Earl  Russell  and 
issued  in  London  and  Boston  in  1 853-' 56.  The 
letters  narrating  his  adventures  in  the  region  are 
dated  *' Geneva,  Genessee  County,  July  17,  1804"  ; 
*  *  Chippewa,  Upper  Canada,  July  22d  "  ;  '  *  Niagara, 
July  24th  ";  —  in  which  he  copies  a  description  of  the 
falls  from  his  journal,  not  elsewhere  published  —  and 
''Chippewa,  July  25th,"  signed  "Tom."  There  is 
no  mention  in  these  letters  of  Buffalo,  but  in  the  preia- 
tory  narrative  above  alluded  to  we  have  this  interesting 
account  of  the  visit : 

It  is  but  too  true,  of  all  grand  objects,  whether  in  nature  or 
art,  that  facility  of  access  to  them  much  diminishes  the  feeling  of 
reverence  they  ought  to  inspire.  Of  this  fault,  however,  the 
route  to  Niagara,  at  this  period  —  at  least  the  portion  of  it  which 
led  through  the  Genesee  country  —  could  not  justly  be  accused. 
The  latter  part  of  the  journey,  which  lay  chiefly  through  yet  but 
half-cleared  woods,  we  were  obliged  to  perform  on  foot ;  and  a 
slight  accident  I  met  with  in  the  course  of  our  rugged  walk  laid 
me  up  for  some  days  at  Buffalo. 

And  so  laid  up  —  perhaps  with  a  blistered  heel  — 
he  sought  relief  by  driving  his  quill  into  the  heart  of 
democracy.  His  friend,  he  lamented,  had  often  told 
him  of  happy  hours  passed  amid  the  classic  associations 
and  art  treasures  of  Italy  : 

But  here  alas,  by  Erie's  stormy  lake. 
As  far  from  such  bright  haunts  my  course  I  take. 
No  proud  remembrance  o'er  the  fancy  plays, 
No  classic  dream,  no  star  of  other  days 


282  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

Hath  left  the  visionary  light  behind, 
That  lingering  radiance  of  immortal  mind, 
Which  gilds  and  hallows  even  the  rudest  scene, 
The  humblest  shed  where  Genius  once  had  been. 

He  views,  not  merely  his  immediate  surroundings  in 
the  pioneer  village  by  Lake  Erie,  but  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  whole  land  : 

All  that  creation's  varying  mass  assumes, 
Of  grand  or  lovely,  here  aspires  and  blooms. 
Bold  rise  the  mountains,  rich  the  gardens  glow. 
Bright  lakes  expand  and  conquering  rivers  flow  ; 
But  mind,  immortal  mind,  without  whose  ray 
This  world's  a  wilderness  and  man  but  clay, 
Mind,  mind  alone,  in  barren  still  repose, 
Nor  blooms,  nor  rises,  nor  expands,  nor  flows. 
Take  Christians,  Mohawks,  democrats  and  all. 
From  the  rude  wigwam  to  the  Congress  Hall, 
From  man  the  savage,  whether  slaved  or  free. 
To  man  the  civilized,  less  tame  than  he, 
'Tis  one  dull  chaos,  one  unfertile  strife 
Betwixt  half-polished  and  half-barbarous  life  ; 
Where  every  ill  the  ancient  world  could  brew 
Is  mixed  with  every  grossness  of  the  new  ; 
Where  all  corrupts,  though  little  can  entice. 
And  naught  is  known  of  luxury,  but  its  vice  ! 
Is  this  the  region  then,  is  this  the  clime 
For  soaring  fancies  ?  for  those  dreams  sublime. 
Which  all  their  miracles  of  light  reveal 
To  heads  that  meditate  and  hearts  that  feel  ? 
Alas  !  not  so  ! 

And  after  much  more  of  proud  protest  against  Co- 
lumbia and  **the  mob  mania  that  imbrutes  her  now," 
our  disapproving  poet  turned  in  to  make  the  best,  let 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  283 

us  hope,  of  Landlord  Crow's  poor  quarters,  and  to 
prepare  for  Niagara.  Years  afterwards  he  admitted 
that  there  was  some  soul  for  song  among  the  men  of 
the  Far  West  of  that  day.  Very  complacently  he  tells 
us  that  *'  Even  then,  on  the  shores  of  those  far  lakes,  the 
title  of  '  Poet '  —  however  in  that  instance  unworthily 
bestowed  —  bespoke  a  kind  and  distinguished  welcome 
for  its  wearer.  The  captain  who  commanded  the 
packet  in  which  I  crossed  Lake  Ontario,  in  addition  to 
other  marks  of  courtesy,  begged,  on  parting  with  me, 
to  be  allowed  to  decline  payment  for  my  passage. ' '  I 
cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  further  from  his  account 
of  the  visit  to  the  falls  : 

When  we  arrived  at  length  at  the  inn,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Falls,  it  was  too  late  to  think  of  visiting  them  that  evening ; 
and  I  lay  awake  almost  the  whole  night  with  the  sound  of  the 
cataract  in  my  ears.  The  day  following  I  consider  as  a  sort  of 
era  in  my  life  ;  and  the  first  glimpse  I  caught  of  that  wonderful 
cataract  gave  me  a  feeling  which  nothing  in  this  world  can  ever 
awa-ken  again.  It  was  through  an  opening  among  the  trees,  as  we 
approached  the  spot  where  the  full  view  of  the  Falls  was  to  burst 
upon  us,  that  I  caught  this  glimpse  of  the  mighty  mass  of  waters 
falling  smoothly  over  the  edge  of  the  precipice  ;  and  so  overwhelm- 
ing was  the  notion  it  gave  me  of  the  awful  spectacle  I  was  ap- 
proaching, that  during  the  short  interval  that  followed,  imagi- 
nation had  far  outrun  the  reality  —  and  vast  and  wonderful  as 
was  the  scene  that  then  opened  upon  me,  my  first  feeling 
was  that  of  disappointment.  It  would  have  been  impossible, 
indeed,  for  anything  real  to  come  up  to  the  vision  I  had,  in 
these  few  seconds,  formed  of  it,  and  those  awful  scriptural 
words,  'The  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up,' 
can  alone  give  any  notion  of  the  vague  wonders  for  which  I 
was  prepared. 


284  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

But,  in  spite  of  the  start  thus  got  by  imagination,  the  triumph 
of  reality  was,  in  the  end,  but  the  greater ;  for  the  gradual  glory  of 
the  scene  that  opened  upon  me  soon  took  possession  of  my  whole 
mind  ;  presenting  from  day  to  day,  some  new  beauty  or  wonder, 
and  like  all  that  is  most  sublime  in  nature  or  art,  awakening  sad  as 
well  as  elevating  thoughts.  I  retain  in  my  memory  but  o:ne  other 
dream  —  for  such  do  events  so  long  past  appear  —  which  can  by 
any  respect  be  associated  with  the  grand  vision  I  have  just  been 
describing ;  and  however  different  the  nature  of  their  appeals  to 
the  imagination,  I  should  find  it  difficult  to  say  on  which  occasion  I 
felt  most  deeply  affected,  when  looking  at  the  Falls  of  Niagara, 
or  when  standing  by  moonlight  among  the  ruins  of  the  Coliseum. 

It  was  the  tranquillity  and  unapproachableness  of  the 
great  fall,  in  the  midst  of  so  much  turmoil,  which  most 
impressed  him.  He  tried  to  express  this  in  a  Song  of 
the  Spirit  of  the  region  : 

There  amid  the  island  sedge, 
Just  upon  the  cataract's  edge, 
Where  the  foot  of  living  man 
Never  trod  since  time  began, 
Lone  I  sit  at  close  of  day,^     .     .     . 

The  poem  as  a  whole,  however,  is  not  a  strong  one, 
even  for  Tom  Moore. 

As  the  Irish  bard  sailed  back  to  England,  another 
pedestrian  poet  was  making  ready  for  a  tour  to  Niagara. 
This  was  the  Paisley  weaver,  rhymster  and  roamer, 
Alexander  Wilson,  whose  fame  as  an  ornithologist  out- 
shines his  reputation  as  a  poet.  Yet  in  him  America 
has  — by  adoption  —  her  Oliver  Goldsmith.  In  1794, 
being  then  twenty-eight  years  old,  he  arrived  in  Phila- 

1  Introduced  in  the  Epistle  to  Lady  Charlotte  Rawdon.  In  Moore's  day 
there  was  a  tiny  islet,  called  Gull  Island,  near  the  edge  of  the  Horseshoe 
Fall.     It  long  since  disappeared. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  285 

delphia.  For  eight  years  he  taught  school,  or  bota- 
nized, roamed  the  woods  with  his  gun,  worked  at  the 
loom,  and  peddled  his  verses  among  the  inhabitants  of 
New  Jersey.  In  October,  1804,  accompanied  by  his 
nephew  and  another  friend,  he  set  out  on  a  walking 
expedition  to  Niagara,  which  he  satisfactorily  accom- 
plished. His  companions  left  him,  but  he  persevered, 
and  reached  home  after  an  absence  of  fifty-nine  days  and 
a  walk  of  1,260  miles.  It  is  very  pleasant,  especially 
for  one  who  has  himself  toured  afoot  over  a  considerable 
part  of  this  same  route,  to  follow  our  naturalist  poet  and 
his  friends  on  their  long  walk  through  the  wilderness,  in 
the  pages  of  Wilson's  descriptive  poem,  ''The  Forest- 
ers." Its  first  edition,  it  is  believed,  is  a  quaint 
little  volume  of  106  pages,  published  at  Newtown, 
Penn.,  in  1818.'  The  route  led  through  Bucks  and 
Northumberland  counties,  over  the  mountains  and  up 
the  valley  of  the  Susquehanna  ;  past  Newtown,  N.  Y. , 
now  Elmira,  and  so  on  to  the  Indian  village  of  Cath- 
erine, near  the  head  of  Seneca  Lake.  Here,  a  quarter 
of  a  century  before,  Sullivan  and  his  raiders  had  brought 
desolation,  traces  of  which  stirred  our  singer  to  some 
of  his  loftiest  flights.  In  that  romantic  wilderness  of 
rocky  glen  and  marsh  and  lake,  the  region  where  Mon- 
tour Falls  and  Watkins  now  are,  Wilson  lingered  to  shoot 
wild  fowl.  Thence  the  route  lay  through  that  interval 
of  long  ascents  —  so  long  that  the  trudging  poet  thought 
To  Heaven's  own  gates  the  mountain  seemed  to  rise 


1  It  had  prior  publication,  serially,  with  illustrations,  in  the  "  Portfolio ' 
of  Philadelphia,  iSog-'io. 


286  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

—  and  equally  long  descents,  from  Seneca  Lake  to  Cayu- 
ga.    Here,  after  a  night's  rest,  under  a  pioneer's  roof: 

Our  boat  now  ready  and  our  baggage  stored, 
Provisions,  mast  and  oars  and  sails  aboard, 
With  three  loud  cheers  that  echoed  from  the  steep. 
We  launched  our  skiff  "Niagara"  to  the  deep. 

Down  to  old  Cayuga  bridge  they  sailed  and  through 
the  outlet,  passed  the  salt  marshes  and  so  on  to  Fort 
Oswego.  That  post  had  been  abandoned  on  the  28th 
of  October,  about  a  week  before  Wilson  arrived  there. 
A  desolate,  woebegone  place  he  found  it : 

Those  struggling  huts  that  on  the  left  appear, 
Where  fence,  or  field,  or  cultured  garden  green, 
Or  blessed  plough,  or  spade  were  never  seen, 
Is  old  Oswego  ;  once  renowned  in  trade. 
Where  numerous  tribes  their  annual  visits  paid. 
From  distant  wilds,  the  beaver's  rich  retreat. 
For  one  whole  moon  they  trudged  with  weary  feet ; 
Piled  their  rich  furs  within  the  crowded  store, 
Replaced  their  packs  and  plodded  back  for  more. 
But  time  and  war  have  banished  all  their  trains 
And  naught  but  potash,  salt  and  rum  remains. 
The  boisterous  boatman,  drunk  but  twice  a  day. 
Begs  of  the  landlord  ;  but  forgets  to  pay  ; 
Pledges  his  salt,  a  cask  for  every  quart. 
Pleased  thus  for  poison  with  his  pay  to  part. 
From  morn  to  night  here  noise  and  riot  reign ; 
From  night  to  morn  'tis  noise  and  roar  again. 

Not  a  flattering  picture,  truly,  and  yet  no  doubt  a 
trustworthy  one,  of  this  period  in  Oswego's  history. 

But  we  must  hurry  along  with  the  poet  to  his  desti- 
nation, although  the  temptation  to  linger  with  him  in 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  287 

this  part  of  the  journey  is  great.  Indeed,  **The 
Foresters"  is  a  historic  chronicle  of  no  slight  value. 
There  is  no  doubting  the  fidelity  of  its  pictures  of  the 
state  of  nature  and  of  man  along  this  storied  route  as 
seen  by  its  author  at  the  beginning  of  the  century ; 
while  his  poetic  philosophizing  is  now  shrewd,  now 
absurd,  but  always  ardently  American  in  tone. 

Our  foresters  undertook  to  coast  along  the  Ontario 
shore  in  their  frail  * '  Niagara' ' ;  narrowly  escaped 
swamping,  and  were  picked  up  by 

A  friendly  sloop  for  Queenstown  Harbor  bound, 

where  they  arrived  safely,  after  being  gloriously  sea- 
sick. It  was  the  season  of  autumn  gales.  A  few  days 
before  a  British  packet  called  the  Speedy,  with  some 
twenty  or  thirty  persons  on  board,  including  a  judge 
advocate,  other  judges,  witnesses  and  an  Indian  prisoner, 
had  foundered  and  every  soul  perished.  No  part  of 
the  Speedy  was  afterwards  found  but  the  pump,  which 
Wilson  says  his  captain  picked  up  and  carried  to 
Queenston. 

Wilson  had  moralized,  philosophized  and  rhapsodized 
all  the  way  from  the  Schuylkill.  His  verse,  as  he 
approaches  the  Mecca  of  his  wanderings,  fairly  palpi- 
tates with  expectation  and  excitement.  He  was  not  a 
bard  to  sing  in  a  majestic  strain,  but  his  description  of 
the  falls  and  their  environment  is  vivid  and  of  historic 
value.     As  they  tramped  through  the  forest,  — 

Heavy  and  slow,  increasing  on  the  ear. 

Deep  through  the  woods  a  rising  storm  we  hear. 


2  88  Niao^ara  and  the  Poets. 

Th'  approaching  gust  still  loud  and  louder  grows, 
As  when  the  strong  northeast  resistless  blows, 
Or  black  tornado,  rushing  through  the  wood, 
Alarms  th'  affrighted  swains  with  uproar  rude. 
Yet  the  blue  heavens  displayed  their  clearest  sky, 
And  dead  below  the  silent  forests  lie  ; 
And  not  a  breath  the  lightest  leaf  assailed  ; 
But  all  around  tranquillity  prevailed. 
"What  noise  is  that  ?  "  we  ask  with  anxious  mien, 
A  dull  salt-driver  passing  with  his  team. 
"  Noise?  noise  ?  —  why,  nothing  that  I  hear  or  see 
But  Nagra  Falls  —  Pray,  whereabouts  live  ye?" 

This  touch  of  realism  ushers  in  a  long  and  over- 
wrought description  of  the  whole  scene.  The  **  crash- 
ing roar,"  he  says, 

bade  us  kneel  and  Time's  great  God  adore. 

Whatever  may  have  been  his  emotions,  his  adjectives 
are  sadly  inadequate,  and  his  verse  devoid  of  true 
poetic  fervor.  More  than  one  of  his  descriptive 
passages,  however,  give  us  those  glimpses  of  conditions 
past  and  gone,  which  the  historian  values.  For  in- 
stance, this  : 

High  o'er  the  wat'ry  uproar,  silent  seen. 
Sailing  sedate,  in  majesty  serene, 
Now  midst  the  pillared  spray  sublimely  lost, 
Swept  the  gray  eagles,  gazing  calm  and  slow, 
On  all  the  horrors  of  the  gulf  below  ; 
Intent,  alone,  to  sate  themselves  with  blood, 
From  the  torn  victims  of  the  raging  flood. 

Wilson  was  not  the  man  to  mistake  a  bird ;  and 
many  other  early  travelers  have  testified  to  the  former 
presence  of  eagles  in  considerable  numbers,  haunting 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  289 

the  gorge  below  the  falls  in  quest  of  the  remains  of 
animals  that  had  been  carried  down  stream. 

Moore,  as  we  have  seen,  denounced  the  country  for 
its  lack  of 

That  lingering  radiance  of  immortal  mind 

which  so  inspires  the  poet  in  older  lands.  He  was 
right  in  his  fact,  but  absurd  in  his  fault-finding.  It 
has  somewhere  been  said  of  him,  that  Niagara  Falls 
was  the  only  thing  he  found  in  America  which  over- 
came his  self-importance ;  but  we  must  remember  his 
youth,  the  flatteries  on  which  he  had  fed  at  home  and  the 
crudities  of  American  life  at  that  time.  For  a  quarter 
of  a  century  after  Tom  Moore's  visit  there  was  much 
in  the  crass  assertiveness  of  American  democracy  which 
was  as  ridiculous  in  its  way  as  the  Old-World  ideas  of 
class  and  social  distinctions  were  in  their  way  —  and 
vastly  more  vulgar  and  offensive.  Read,  in  evidence, 
Mrs.  TroUope  and  Capt.  Basil  Hall,  two  of  America's 
severest  and  sincerest  critics.  It  should  be  put  down 
to  Tom  Moore's  credit,  too,  that  before  he  died  he  ad- 
mitted to  Washington  Irving  and  to  others  that  his  writ- 
ings on  America  were  the  greatest  sin  of  his  early  life. ' 

1  Tom  Moore's  infantile  criticisms  of  American  institutions  have  often 
been  quoted  with  approbation  by  persons  sharing  his  supposed  hostile  views. 
What  his  maturer  judgment  was  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
extract  from  a  letter  which  he  wrote,  July  12,  i8i8,  to  J.  E.  Hall,  editor  of 
the  "  Portfolio,"  Philadelphia.  I  am  not  aware  that  it  ever  has  been  pub- 
lished.    I  quote  from  the  original  manuscript,  in  my  possession  : 

"  You  are  mistaken  in  thinking  that  my  present  views  of  politics  are  a 
chans:e  from  those  I  formerly  entertained.  They  are  but  a  returit  to  those 
of  my  school  &  college  days  —  to  principles,  of  which  I  may  say  what 
Propertius  said  of  his  mistress  :  Cynthia  prima  /uit,  Cynthia  finis  erit. 
The  only  thing  that  has  ever  made  them  librate  in  their  orbit  was  that 
foolish  disgust  I  took  at  what  I  thought  the  consequences  of  democratic 

f)rinciples  in  America  —but  I  judged  by  the  abtise,  not  the  use  —  and  the 
ittle  information  I  took  the  trouble  of  seeking  came  to  me  through  twisted 


290  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

Like  Moore,  Alexander  Wilson  felt  America's  lack 
of  a  poet ;  and,  like  Barlow  and  Humphreys  and 
Freneau  and  others  of  forgotten  fame,  he  undertook  — 
like  them  again,  unsuccessfully  —  to  supply  the  lack. 
There  is  something  pathetic  —  or  grotesque,  as  we  look 
at  it  —  in  the  patriotic  efforts  of  these  commonplace 
men  to  be  great  for  their  country's  sake. 

To  Europe's  shores  renowned  in  deathless  song, 

asks  Wilson, 

Must  all  the  honors  of  the  bard  belong? 

And  rural  Poetry's  enchanting  strain 

Be  only  heard  beyond  th'  Atlantic  main  ? 

Yet  Nature's  charms  that  bloom  so  lovely  here, 

Unbailed  arrive,  unheeded  disappear  ; 

While  bare  black  heaths  and  brooks  of  half  a  mile 

Can  rouse  the  thousand  bards  of  Britain's  Isle. 

There,  scarce  a  stream  creeps  down  its  narrow  bed, 

There  scarce  a  hillock  lifts  its  little  head. 

Or  humble  hamlet  peeps  their  glades  among 

But  lives  and  murmurs  in  immortal  song. 

Our  Western  world,  with  all  its  matchless  floods, 

Our  vast  transparent  lakes  and  boundless  woods, 

Stamped  with  the  traits  of  majesty  sublime, 

Unhonored  weep  the  silent  lapse  of  time, 

Spread  their  wild  grandeur  to  the  unconscious  sky. 

In  sweetest  seasons  pass  unheeded  by  ; 

While  scarce  one  Muse  returns  the  songs  they  gave, 

Or  seeks  to  snatch  their  glories  from  the  grave. 


THOMAS   MOORE. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  291 

This  solicitude  by  the  early  American  writers,  lest 
the  poetic  themes  of  their  country  should  go  unsung, 
contrasts  amusingly,  as  does  Moore's  ill-natured  com- 
plaining, with  the  prophetic  assurance  of  Bishop  Berke- 
ley's famous  lines,  written  half  a  century  or  so  before, 
in  allusion  to  America  : 

The  muse,  disgusted  at  an  age  and  clime 

Barren  of  every  glorious  theme, 
In  distant  lands  now  waits  a  better  time, 

Producing  subjects  worthy  fame. 


Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way,     ,     .     . 

I  have  found  no  other  pilgrim  poets  making  Niagara 
their  theme,  until  the  War  of  1812  came  to  create 
heroes  and  leave  ruin  along  the  frontier,  and  stir  a  few 
patriotic  singers  to  hurl  back  defiance  to  the  British 
hordes.  Iambic  defiance,  unless  kindled  by  a  grand 
genius,  is  a  poor  sort  of  fireworks,  even  when  it  un- 
dertakes to  combine  patriotism  and  natural  grandeur. 
Certainly  something  might  be  expected  of  a  poet  who 
sandwiches  Niagara  Falls  in  between  bloody  battles, 
and  gives  us  the  magnificent  in  nature,  the  gallant  in 
warfare  and  the  loftiest  patriotism  in  purpose,  the  three 
strains  woven  in  a  triple  paean  of  passion,  ninety-four 
duodecimo  pages  in  length.  Such  a  work  was  offered 
to  the  world  at  Baltimore  in  1818,  with  this  title-page : 
**  Battle  of  Niagara,  a  Poem  Without  Notes,  and  Gol- 
dau,  or  the  Maniac  Harper.  Eagles  and  Stars  and 
Rainbows.  By  Jehu  O'  Cataract,  author  of  *  Keep 
Cool.'"     I  have  never  seen    **  Keep  Cool,"   but  it 


292  Niagara  and  the  Poets, 

must  be  very  different  from  the  '  *  Battle  of  Niagara, ' ' 
or  it  belies  its  name.  The  fiery  Jehu  O'  Cataract  was 
John  Neal.' 

The  "Battle  of  Niagara,"  he  informs  the  reader, 
was  written  when  he  was  a  prisoner;  when  he  "felt 
the  victories  of  his  countrymen. "  "I  have  attempted, ' ' 
he  says,  "  to  do  justice  to  American  scenery  and  Amer- 
ican character,  not  to  versify  minutiae  of  battles." 
The  poem  has  a  metrical  introduction  and  four  cantos, 
in  which  is  told,  none  too  lucidly,  the  story  of  the 
battle  of  Niagara ;  with  such  flights  of  eagles,  scintil- 
lation of  stars  and  breaking  of  rainbows,  that  no  brief 
quotation  can  do  it  justice.  In  style  it  is  now  Mil- 
tonic,  now  reminiscent  of  Walter  Scott.  The  opening 
canto  is  mainly  an  apostrophe  to  the  Bird,  and  a  vision 
of  glittering  horsemen.  Canto  two  is  a  dissertation  on 
Lake  Ontario,  with  word-pictures  of  the  primitive  In- 
dian. The  rest  of  the  poem  is  devoted  to  the  battle 
near  the  great  cataract  —  and  throughout  all  are 
sprinkled  the  eagles,  stars  and  rainbows.  Do  not  infer 
from  this  characterization  that  the  production  is  wholly 
bad  ;  it  is  merely  a  good  specimen  of  that  early  Ameri- 

1  John  Neal,  or  "Yankee  Neal,"  as  he  was  called,  is  a  figure  in  early 
American  letters  which  should  not  be  forgotten.  He  was  of  Quaker 
descent,  but  was  read  out  of  the  Society  of  Friends  in  his  youth,  as  he 
says,  "  for  knocking  a  man  head  over  heels,  for  writing  a  tragedy,  for  pay- 
ing a  militia  fine  and  for  desiring  to  be  turned  out  whether  or  no.''  He  was 
a  pioneer  in  American  literature,  and  won  success  at  home  and  abroad 
several  years  before  Cooper  became  known.  He  was  the  first  American 
contributor  to  English  and  Scotch  quarterlies,  and  compelled  attention  to 
American  topics  at  a  time  when  English  literature  was  regarded  as  the 
monopoly  of  Great  Britain,  His  career  was  exceedingly  varied  and  pic- 
turesque. He  was  an  artist,  lawyer,  traveler,  journalist  and  athlete.  He 
is  said  to  have  established  the  first  gymnasium  in  this  country,  on  foreign 
models,  and  was  the  first  to  advocate,  in  1838,  in  a  Fourth-of-July  oration, 
the  right  of  woman  suffrage.  His  writings  are  many,  varied,  and  for 
the  most  part  hard  to  find  nowadays. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  293 

can  poetry  which  was  just  bad  enough  to  escape  being 
good. 

A  brief  passage  or  two  will  sufficiently  illustrate  the 
author's  trait  of  painting  in  high  colors.  He  is  a  word- 
impressionist  whose  brush,  with  indiscreet  dashes, 
mars  the  composition.  I  select  two  passages  descrip- 
tive of  the  battle  : 

The  drum  is  rolled  again.     The  bugle  sings 
And  far  upon  the  wind  the  cross  flag  flings 
A  radiant  challenge  to  its  starry  foe, 
That  floats  —  a  sheet  of  light  !  —  away  below, 
Where  troops  are  forming  —  slowly  in  the  night 
Of  mighty  waters  ;  where  an  angry  light 
Bounds  from  the  cataract,  and  fills  the  skies 
With  visions  —  rainbows  —  and  the  foamy  dyes 
That  one  may  see  at  morn  in  youthful  poets'  eyes. 

Niagara  !  Niagara  !  I  hear 

Thy  tumbling  waters.     And  I  see  thee  rear 

Thy  thundering  sceptre  to  the  clouded  skies  : 

I  see  it  wave  —  I  hear  the  ocean  rise. 

And  roll  obedient  to  thy  call.     I  hear 

The  tempest-hymning  of  thy  floods  in  fear  ; 

The  quaking  mountains  and  the  nodding  trees  — 

The  reeling  birds  and  the  careering  breeze  — 

The  tottering  hills,  unsteadied  in  thy  roar  ; 

Niagara  !  as  thy  dark  waters  pour 

One  everlasting  earthquake  rocks  thy  lofty  shore  ! 

The  cavalcade  went  by.     The  day  hath  gone  ; 
And  yet  the  soldier  lives  ;  his  cheerful  tone 
Rises  in  boisterous  song  ;  while  slowly  calls 
The  monarch  spirit  of  the  mighty  falls  : 
Soldier,  be  firm  !  and  mind  your  watchfires  well ; 
Sleep  not  to-night ! 


294  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

The  following  picture  of  the  camp  at  sunset,  as  the 
reveille  rings  over  the  field,  and  Niagara's  muffled 
drums  vibrate  through  the  dusk,  presents  many  of  the 
elements  of  true  poetry  : 

Low  stooping  from  his  arch,  the  glorious  sun 
Hath  left  the  storm  with  which  his  course  begun  ; 
And  now  in  rolling  clouds  goes  calmly  home 
In  heavenly  pomp  adown  the  far  blue  dome. 
In  sweet-toned  minstrelsy  is  heard  the  cry, 
All  clear  and  smooth,  along  the  echoing  sky. 
Of  many  a  fresh-blown  bugle  full  and  strong, 
The  soldier's  instrument  !  the  soldier's  song  ! 
Niagara,  too,  is  heard  ;  his  thunder  comes 
Like  far-off  battle  —  hosts  of  rolling  drums. 
All  o'er  the  western  heaven  the  flaming  clouds 
Detach  themselves  and  float  like  hovering  shrouds. 
Loosely  unwoven,  and  afar  unfurled, 
A  sunset  canopy  enwraps  the  world. 
The  Vesper  hymn  grows  soft.     In  parting  day 
Wings  flit  about.     The  warblings  die  away, 
The  shores  are  dizzy  and  the  hills  look  dim. 
The  cataract  falls  deeper  and  the  landscapes  swim. 

Jehu  O' Cataract  does  not  always  hold  his  fancy  with 
so  steady  a  rein  as  this.  He  is  prone  to  eccentric 
flights,  to  bathos  and  absurdities.  His  apostrophe  to 
Lake  Ontario,  several  hundred  lines  in  length,  has  many 
fine  fancies,  but  his  luxuriant  imagination  continually 
wrecks  itself  on  extravagancies  which  break  down  the 
effect.     This  I  think  the  following  lines  illustrate  : 

.     .     .     He  had  fought  with  savages,  whose  breath 
He  felt  upon  his  cheek  like  mildew  till  his  death. 

So  stood  the  battle.     Bravely  it  was  fought, 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  295 

Lions  and  Eagles  met.     That  hill  was  bought 

And  sold  in  desperate  combat.     Wrapped  in  flame, 

Died  these  idolaters  of  bannered  fame. 

Three  times  that  meteor  hill  was  bravely  lost  — 

Three  times  'twas  bravely  won,  while  madly  tost. 

Encountering  red  plumes  in  the  dusky  air  ; 

While  Slaughter  shouted  in  her  bloody  lair. 

And  spectres  blew  their  horns  and  shook  their  whistling  hair. 

There  are  allusions  to  Niagara  in  some  of  the  ballads 
of  the  War  of  1812,  one  of  the  finest  of  which,  *<Sea 
and  Land  Victories,"  beginning 

With  half  the  western  world  at  stake 
See  Perry  on  the  midland  lake, — 

appeared  in  the  Naval  Songster  of  1815,  and  was  a 
great  favorite  half  a  century  or  more  ago.  So  far, 
however,  as  the  last  War  with  Great  Britain  has  added 
to  our  store  of  poetry  by  turning  the  attention  of  the 
poets  to  the  Niagara  region  as  a  strikingly  picturesque 
scene  of  war,  there  is  little  worthy  of  attention.  One 
ambitious  work  is  remembered,  when  remembered  at 
all,  as  a  curio  of  literature.  This  is  '*The  Fredoniad, 
or  Independence  Preserved,"  an  epic  poem  by  Richard 
Emmons,  a  Kentuckian,  afterwards  a  physician  of  Phila- 
delphia. He  worked  on  it  for  ten  years,  finally 
printed  it  in  1826,  and  in  1830  got  it  through  a  second 
edition,  ostentatiously  dedicated  to  Lafayette.  '*  The 
Fredoniad"  is  a  history  in  verse  of  the  War  of  1812 ; 
it  was  published  in  four  volumes  ;  it  has  forty  cantos, 
filling  1,404  duodecimo  pages,  or  a  total  length  of  about 
42,000  lines.     The  first  and  second  cantos  are  devoted 


296  Niagara  and  the  Poets, 

to  Hell,  the  third  to  Heaven,  and  the  fourth  to  Detroit. 
About  one-third  of  the  whole  work  is  occupied  with 
military  operations  on  the  Niagara  frontier.  Nothing 
from  Fort  Erie  to  Fort  Niagara  escapes  this  meter- 
machine.  The  Doctor's  poetic  feet  stretch  out  to 
miles  and  leagues,  but  not  a  single  verse  do  I  find  that 
prompts  to  quotation ;  though,  I  am  free  to  confess,  I 
have  not  read  them  all,  and  much  doubt  if  any  one  save 
the  infatuated  author,  and  perhaps  his  proof-reader, 
ever  did  read  the  whole  of  **  The  Fredoniad." 


No  sooner  was  the  frontier  at  peace,  and  the  path- 
ways of  travel  multiplied  and  smoothed,  than  there  set 
in  the  first  great  era  of  tourist  travel  to  Niagara.  From 
1825,  when  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  first  made 
the  falls  easily  accessible  to  the  East,  the  tide  of  visit- 
ors steadily  swelled.  In  that  year  came  one  other 
poetizing  pilgrim,  from  York,  now  Toronto,  who, 
returning  home,  published  in  his  own  city  a  duodecimo 
of  forty-six  pages,  entitled  *  *  Wonders  of  the  West,  or 
a  Day  at  the  Falls  of  Niagara  in  1825.  A  Poem.  By 
a  Canadian."  The  author  was  J.  S.  Alexander,  said 
to  have  been  a  Toronto  school-teacher.  It  is  a  great 
curio,  though  of  not  the  least  value  as  poetry ;  in  fact, 
as  verse  it  is  ridiculously  bad.  The  author  does  not 
narrate  his  own  adventures  at  Niagara,  but  makes  his 
descriptive  and  historical  passages  incidental  to  the 
story  of  a  hero  named  St.  Julian.  Never  was  the  name 
of  this  beloved  patron  saint  of  travelers  more  unhappily 
bestowed,  for   this  St.  Julian  is   a   lugubrious,  crack- 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  297 

brained  individual  who  mourns  the  supposed  death  of 
a  lady-love,  Eleanor  St.  Fleur.     Other  characters  are 
introduced;   all   French    except    a   remarkable    driver 
named  Wogee^  who  tells  legends  and  historic  incidents 
in  as  good  verse,  apparently,  as  the  author  was  able  to 
produce.     St.  Julian  is  twice  on  the  point  of  commit- 
ting suicide ;  once  on  Queenston  Heights,  and  again  at 
the  falls.     Just  as  he  is  about  to  throw  himself  into  the 
river  he  hears  \i\%  Ellen' s  \o\c^  —  the  lady,  it  seems, 
had  come  from  France  by  a  different  route  —  all  the 
mysteries  are  cleared  up,  and  the  reunited  lovers  and 
their  friends  decide  to  *  *  hasten  hence, ' ' 
Again  to  our  dear  native  France, 
Where  we  shall  talk  of  all  we  saw, 
At  thy  dread  falls,  Niagara.  ^ 

From  about  this  date  the  personal  adventures  of  indi- 
viduals bound  for  Niagara  cease  to  be  told  in  verse, 
and  if  they  were  they  would  cease  to  be  of  much  his- 
toric interest.  The  relation  of  the  poets  to  Niagara 
no  longer  concerns  us  because  of  its  historic  aspect. 


There  remains,  however,  an  even  more  important 
division  of  the  subject.  The  review  must  be  less  nar- 
rative than  critical,  to  satisfy  the  natural  inquiry. 
What  impress  upon  the  poetry  of  our  literature  has 

1  Those  interested  in  scarce  Americana  may  care  to  know  that  this 
"  Wonders  of  the  West "  is  said  by  some  authorities  to  be  the  second  book 
—  certain  almanacs  and  small  prints  excluded  —  that  was  published  in  Can- 
ada West,  now  Ontario.  Of  its  only  predecessor,  "St.  Ursula's  Con- 
vent, or  the  Nuns  of  Canada,"  Kingston,  1824,  no  copy  is  believed  to  exist. 
Of  the  York  school-master's  Niagara  poem,  I  know  of  but  two  copies, 
one  owned  by  M.  Phileas  Gagnon,  the  Quebec  bibliophile ;  the  other  in 
my  own  possession.  It  is  at  least  of  interest  to  observe  that  Ontario's 
native  poetry  began  with  a  tribute  to  her  greatest  natural  wonder,  though 
it  could  be  wished  with  a  more  creditable  example. 


298  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

this  greatest  of  cataracts  made  during  the  three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  that  it  has  been  easily  accessible  to 
the  world  ?  What  of  the  supreme  in  poetry  has  been 
prompted  by  this  mighty  example  of  the  supreme  in 
nature?  The  proposition  at  once  suggests  subtleties 
of  analysis  which  must  not  be  entered  upon  in  this 
brief  survey.  The  answer  to  the  question  is  attempted 
chiefly  by  the  historical  method.  A  few  selected  ex- 
amples of  the  verse  which  relates  to  Niagara  will,  by 
their  very  nature,  indicate  the  logical  answer  to  the 
fundamental  inquiry. 

There  is  much  significance  in  the  fact,  that  what  has 
been  called  the  best  poem  on  Niagara  was  written  by 
one  who  never  saw  the  falls.  Chronologically,  so  far 
as  I  have  ascertained,  it  is  the  work  which  should  next 
be  considered,  for  it  appeared  in  the  columns  of  a 
New-England  newspaper,  about  the  time  when  the 
newly-opened  highway  to  the  West  robbed  Niagara 
forever  of  her  majestic  solitude,  and  filled  the  world 
with  her  praise.  They  may  have  been  travelers'  tales 
that  prompted,  but  it  was  the  spiritual  vision  of  the  true 
poet  that  inspired  the  lines  printed  in  the  Connecticut 
Mirror  at  Hartford,  about  1825,  by  the  delicate, 
gentle  youth,  John  G.  C.  Brainard.  It  is  a  poem 
much  quoted,  of  a  character  fairly  indicated  by  these 
lines : 

It  would  seem 
As  if  God  formed  thee  from  his  "hollow  hand" 
And  hung  his  bow  upon  thine  awful  front ; 
And  spoke  in  that  loud  voice,  which  seemed  to  him 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  299 

Who  dwelt  in  Patmos  for  his  Savior's  sake, 
'*  The  sound  of  many  waters  "  ;  and  bade 
Thy  flood  to  chronicle  the  ages  back, 
And  notch  his  centuries  in  the  eternal  rocks. 

Measured  by  the  strength  of  an  Emerson  or  a  Low- 
ell, this  is  but  feeble  blank  verse,  approaching  the 
bombastic ;  but  as  compared  with  what  had  gone 
before,  and  much  that  was  to  follow,  on  the  Niagara 
theme,  it  is  a  not  unwelcome  variation. 

The  soul's  vision,  through  imagination's  magic  glass, 
receives  more  of  Poesy's  divine  light  than  is  shed  upon 
all  the  rapt  gazers  at  the  veritable  cliff  and  falling  flood. 

During  the  formative  years  of  what  we  now  regard 
as  an  established  literary  taste,  but  which  later  genera- 
tions will  modify  in  turn,  most  American  poetry  was 
imitative  of  English  models.  Later,  as  has  been 
shown,  there  was  an  assertively  patriotic  era ;  and  later 
still,  one  of  great  laudation  of  America's  newly-dis- 
covered wonders,  which  in  the  case  of  Niagara  took 
the  form  of  apostrophe  and  devotion.  To  the  patriotic 
literature  of  Niagara,  besides  examples  already  cited, 
belongs  Joseph  Rodman  Drake's  *' Niagara,"  printed 
with  ''The  Culprit  Fay,  and  Other  Poems"  in  1835.^ 
It  is  a  poem  which  would  strike  the  critical  ear  of 
today,  I  think,  as  artificial ;  its  sentiment,  however,  is 
not  to  be  impeached.  The  poet  sings  of  the  love  of 
freedom  which  distinguishes  the  Swiss  mountaineer; 
of  the  sailor's  daring  and  bravery  ;  of  the  soldier's  hero- 

'  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  "The  Culprit  Fay,"  which  appeared  in  1819, 
was  the  outgrowth  of  a  conversation  between  Drake,  Halleck  and  Cooper, 
concerning  the  unsung  poetry  of  American  rivers.—  See  Richardson's 
*'  American  Literature,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  24. 


300  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

ism,  even  to  death.     Niagara,  like  the  alp,  the  sea,  and 
the  battle,  symbolizes  freedom,  triumph  and  glory : 

Then  pour  thy  broad  wave  like  a  flood  from  the  heavens, 
Each  son  that  thou  rearest,  in  the  battle's  wild  shock, 

When  the  death -speaking  note  of  the  trumpet  is  given. 
Will  charge  like  thy  torrent  or  stand  like  thy  rock. 

Let  his  roof  be  the  cloud  and  the  rock  be  his  pillow, 
Let  him  stride  the  rough  mountain  or  toss  on  the  foam, 

Let  him  strike  fast  and  well  on  the  field  or  the  billow, 
In  triumph  and  glory  for  God  and  his  home  ! 

Nine  years  after  Drake  came  Mrs.  Sigourney,  who, 
notwithstanding  her  genuine  love  of  nature  and  of 
mankind,  her  sincerity  and  occasional  genius,  was 
hopelessly  of  the  sentimental  school.  Like  Frances 
S.  Osgood,  N.  P.  Willis  and  others  now  lost  in  even 
deeper  oblivion,  she  found  great  favor  with  her  day 
and  generation.  Few  things  from  her  ever-productive 
pen  had  a  warmer  welcome  than  the  lines  beginning  : 

Up  to  the  table-rock,  where  the  great  flood 
Reveals  its  fullest  glory, 

and  her  ''Farewell  to  Niagara,"  concluding 

.     .     .     .     it  were  sweet 
To  linger  here,  and  be  thy  worshipper, 
Until  death's  footstep  broke  this  dream  of  life. 

Supremely  devout  in  tone,  her  Niagara  poems  are 
commonplace  in  imagination.  Her  fancy  rarely  reaches 
higher  than  the  perfectly  obvious.  I  confess  that  I 
cannot  read  her  lines  without  a  vision  of  the  lady  her- 
self standing  in  rapt  attitude  on  the  edge  of  Table 
Rock,  with  note-book  in  hand  and  pencil  uplifted  to 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  301 

catch  the  purest  inspiration  from  the  scene  before  her. 
She  is  the  type  of  a  considerable  train  of  writers  whose 
Niagara  effusions  leave  on  the  reader's  mind  little  im- 
pression beyond  an  iterated  **Oh,  thou  great  Niagara, 
Oh !  ' '  Such  a  one  was  Richard  Kelsey,  whose 
*' Niagara  and  Other  Poems,"  printed  in  London  in 
1848,  is  likely  to  be  encountered  in  old  London  book- 
shops. I  have  read  Mr.  Kelsey' s  **  Niagara"  several 
times.  Once  when  I  first  secured  the  handsome  gilt- 
edged  volume ;  again,  later  on,  to  discover  why  I  failed 
to  remember  any  word  or  thought  of  it ;  and  again,  in 
the  preparation  of  this  paper,  that  I  might  justly  char- 
acterize it.  But  I  am  free  to  confess  that  beyond  a 
general  impression  of  Parnassian  attitudinizing  and 
extravagant  apostrophe  I  get  nothing  out  of  its  pages. 
Decidedly  better  are  the  lines  **  On  Visiting  the  Falls 
of  Niagara,"  by  Lord  Morpeth,  the  Earl  of  Carlisle, 
who  visited  Niagara  in  1841.'  He,  too,  begins  with 
the  inevitable  apostrophe : 

There's  nothing  great  or  bright,  thou  glorious  fall  ! 
Thou  mayst  not  to  the  fancy's  sense  recall  — 

but  he  saves  himself  with  a  fairly  creditable  sentiment : 

Oh  !  may  the  wars  that  madden  in  thy  deeps 
There  spend  their  rage  nor  climb  the  encircling  steeps, 
And  till  the  conflict  of  thy  surges  cease 
The  nations  on  thy  bank  repose  in  peace. 

A  British  poet  who  should  perhaps  have  mention  in 

1  Lord  Morpeth  made  three  visits  to  Niagara.  He  was  the  friend  and 
euest,  during  his  American  travels,  of  Mr.  Wadsworth  at  the  Geneseo 
Homestead  ;  and  was  also  entertained  by  ex-President  Van  Buren  and 
other  distinguished  men.  His  writings  reveal  a  poetic,  reflective  tempera- 
ment, but  rarely  rise  above  the  commonplace  in  thought  or  expression. 


302  Niagara  and  the  Poets, 

this  connection  is  Thomas  Campbell,  whose  poem, 
**The  Emigrant,"  contains  an  allusion  to  Niagara.  It 
was  published  anonymously  in  1823  in  the  New  Monthly 
Magazine,  which  Campbell  then  edited.' 

No  poem  on  Niagara  that  I  know  of  is  more  entitled 
to  our  respectful  consideration  than  the  elaborate  work 
which  was  published  in  1848  by  the  Rev.  C.  H.  A. 
Bulkley  of  Mt.  Morris,  N.  Y.  It  is  a  serious  attempt  to 
produce  a  great  poem  with  Niagara  Falls  as  its  theme. 
Its  length  —  about  3,600  lines  —  secures  to  Western 
New  York  the  palm  for  elaborate  treatment  of  the  cata- 
ract in  verse.  **Much,"  says  the  author,  *'  has  been 
written  hitherto  upon  Niagara  in  fugitive  verse,  but  no 
attempt  like  this  has  been  made  to  present  its  united 
wonders  as  the  theme  of  a  single  poem.  It  seems  a  bold 
adventure  and  one  too  hazardous,  because  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  subject  and  the  obscurity  of  the  bard ;  but 
his  countrymen  are  called  upon  to  judge  it  with  impar- 
tiality, and  pronounce  its  life  or  its  death.  The 
author  would  not  shrink  from  criticism.  .  .  .  His 
object  has  been,  not  so  much  to  describe  at  length 
the  scenery  of  Niagara  in  order  to  excite  emotions  in 
the  reader  similar  to  those  of  the  beholder,  for  this 
would  be  a  vain  endeavor,  as  to  give  a  transcript  of 
what  passes  through  the  mind  of  one  who  is  supposed 
to  witness  so  grand  an  achievement  of  nature.  The 
difficulty,"  he  adds,  **with  those  who  visit  this  won- 
derful cataract  is  to  give  utterance  to  those  feelings  and 


^  The  lines  are  not  included  in  ordinary  editions  of  Campbell's  poems. 
The  original  MS.  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Buffalo  Public  Library. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  303 

thoughts  that  crowd  within  and  often,  because  thus  pent 
up,  produce  what  may  be  termed  the  pain  of  delight." 

Of  a  poem  which  fills  132  duodecimo  pages  it  is 
difficult  to  give  a  fair  idea  in  a  few  words.  There  is  an 
introductory  apostrophe,  followed  by  a  specific  apos- 
trophe to  the  falls  as  a  vast  form  of  life.  Farther  on  the 
cataract  is  apostrophized  as  a  destroyer,  as  an  historian, 
a  warning  prophet,  an  oracle  of  truth,  a  tireless  laborer. 
There  are  many  passages  descriptive  of  the  islands,  the 
gorge,  the  whirlpool,  etc.  Then  come  more  apos- 
trophes to  the  fall  respecting  its  origin  and  early  life. 
It  is  viewed  as  the  presence-chamber  of  God,  and  as  a 
proof  of  Deity.  Finally,  we  have  the  cataract's  hymn 
to  the  Creator,  and  the  flood's  death-dirge. 

No  long  poem  is  without  its  commonplace  intervals. 
Mr.  Bulkley's  **  Niagara"  has  them  to  excess,  yet  as  a 
whole  it  is  the  work  of  a  refined  and  scholarly  mind,  its 
imagination  hampered  by  its  religious  habit,  but  now 
and  than  quickened  to  lofty  flights,  and  strikingly  sus- 
tained and  noble  in  its  diction.  Only  a  true  poet  takes 
such  cognizance  of  initial  impulses  and  relations  in  na- 
ture as  this : 

In  thy  hoarse  strains  is  heard  the  desolate  wail 
Of  streams  unnumbered  wandering  far  away, 
From  mountain  homes  where,  'neath  the  shady  rocks 
Their  parent  springs  gave  them  a  peaceful  birth. 

It  presents  many  of  the  elements  of  a  great  poem, 
reaching  the  climax  in  the  cataract's  hymn  to  the 
Creator,  beginning 

Oh  mighty  Architect  of  Nature's  home  ! 


304  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

At  about  this  period  —  to  be  exact,  in  1848  —  there 
was  published  in  New  York  City,  as  a  pamphlet  or 
thin  booklet,  a  poem  entitled  "Niagara,"  by  *<A 
Member  of  the  Ohio  Bar, ' '  of  whose  indentity  I  know 
nothing.  It  is  a  composition  of  some  merit,  chiefly 
interesting  by  reason  of  its  concluding  lines  : 

.     .     .     .     Then  so  live, 
That  when  in  the  last  fearful  mortal  hour, 
Thy  wave,  borne  on  at  unexpected  speed, 
O'erhangs  the  yawning  chasm,  soon  to  fall. 
Thou  start  not  back  affrighted,  like  a  youth 
That  wakes  from  sleep  to  find  his  feeble  bark 
Suspended  o'er  Niagara,  and  with  shrieks 
And  unavailmg  cries  alarms  the  air. 
Tossing  his  hands  in  frenzied  fear  a  moment, 
Then  borne  away  forever  !     But  with  gaze 
Calm  and  serene  look  through  the  eddying  mists. 
On  Faith's  unclouded  bow,  and  take  thy  plunge 
As  one  whose  Father's  arms  are  stretched  beneath, 
Who  falls  into  the  bosom  of  his  God  ! 

The  close  parallelism  of  these  lines  with  the  exalted 
conclusion  of  "  Thanatopsis "  is  of  course  obvious; 
but  they  embody  a  symbolism  which  is  one  of  the  best 
that  has  been  suggested  by  Niagara. 


From  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous  was  never  a 
shorter  descent  than  in  this  matter  of  Niagara  poetry. 
At  about  the  time  Mr.  Bulkley  wrote,  and  for  some 
years  after,  it  was  the  pernicious  custom  to  keep  public 
albums  at  the  Table  Rock  and  other  points  at  the 
falls,  for  the  record  of  ** impressions."     Needless  to 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  305 

say,  these  albums  filled  up  with  rubbish.  To  bad  taste 
was  added  the  iniquity  of  publication,  so  that  future 
generations  may  be  acquainted  with  one  of  the  least 
creditable  of  native  American  literary  whims.  The 
editor  of  one  of  these  albums,  issued  in  1856,  lamented 
that  *  *  the  innumerable  host  of  visitors  who  have  per- 
petrated composition  in  the  volumes  of  manuscript 
now  before  us,  should  have  added  so  little  to  the  gen- 
eral stock  of  legitimate  and  permanent  literature ' ' ; 
and  he  adds  —  by  way  seemingly  of  adequate  excuse  — 
that  '  *  the  actual  amount  of  frivolous  nonsense  which 
constitutes  so  large  a  portion  of  the  contents  . 
is  not  all  to  be  calculated  by  the  specimens  now  and 
then  exhibited.  We  have  given  the  best,"  he  says, 
' '  always  taking  care  that  decency  shall  not  be  outraged, 
nor  delicacy  shocked ;  and  in  this  respect,  however 
improbable  it  may  seem,  precaution  has  been  by  no 
means  unnecessary. ' '  What  a  commentary  on  the  sub- 
lime in  nature,  as  reflected  on  man  in  the  mass  ! 

These  Table-Rock  Albums  contain  some  true  poetry  ; 
much  would-be  fine  verse  which  falls  below  mediocre  ; 
much  of  horse -play  or  puerility  ;  and  now  and  then  a 
gleam  of  wit.  Here  first  appeared  the  lines  which 
I  remember  to  have  conned  years  ago  in  a  school- 
rhetoric,  and  for  which,  I  believe,  N.  P.  Willis  was 
responsible  : 

To  view  Niagara  Falls  one  day, 

A  parson  and  a  tailor  took  their  way  ; 

The  parson  cried,  whilst  wrapped  in  wonder. 

And  listening  to  the  cataract's  thunder, 


3o6  Niagara  and  the  Poets, 

**  Lord  !  how  thy  works  amaze  our  eyes, 
And  fill  our  hearts  with  vast  surprise";  — 
The  tailor  merely  made  his  note  : 
'  *  Lord  !  what  a  place  to  sponge  a  coat  ! " 

There  has  been  many  a  visitor  at  Niagara  Falls  who 
shares  the  sentiments  of  one  disciple  of  the  realistic 
school : 

Loud  roars  the  waters,  O, 
Loud  roars  the  waters,  O, 
When  I  come  to  the  Falls  again 
I  hope  they  will  not  spatter  so. 

Another  writes : 

My  thoughts  are  strange,  sublime  and  deep, 
As  I  look  up  to  thee  — 
What  a  glorious  place  for  washing  sheep, 
Niagara  would  be  ! 

Examples  of  such  doggerel  could  be  multiplied  by- 
scores,  but  without  profit.  There  was  sense  if  not 
poetry  in  the  wight  who  wrote  : 

I  have  been  to  **  Termination  Rock  " 
Where  many  have  been  before ; 
But  as  I  can't  describe  the  scene 
I  wont  say  any  more. 

Infinitely  better  than  this  are  the  light  but  pleasing 
verses  written  in  a  child's  album,  years  ago,  by  the  late 
Col.  Peter  A.  Porter  of  Niagara  Falls.  He  pictured 
the  discovery  of  the  falls  by  La  Salle  and  Hennepin 
and  ponders  upon  the  changes  that  have  followed  : 

What  troops  of  tourists  have  encamped  upon  the  river's  brink  ; 
What  poets  shed  from  countless  quills  Niagaras  of  ink  ; 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  307 

What  artist  armies  tried  to  fix  the  evanescent  bow 

Of  the  waters  falling  as  they  fell  two  hundred  years  ago. 

And  stately  inns  feed  scores  of  guests  from  well-replenished  larder, 
And  hackmen  drive  their  horses  hard,  but  drive  a  bargain  harder. 
And  screaming  locomotives  rush  in  anger  to  and  fro  ; 
But  the  waters  fall  as  once  they  fell  two  hundred  years  ago. 

And  brides  of  every  age  and  clime  frequent  the  islands'  bower, 
And  gaze  from  off  the  stone-built  perch  —  hence  called  the  Bridal 

Tower  — 
And  many  a  lunar  belle  goes  forth  to  meet  a  lunar  beau, 
By  the  waters  falling  as  they  fell  two  hundred  years  ago. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  long  poem  the  author  takes 
a  more  serious  tone,  but  throughout  he  keeps  up  a 
happy  cleverness,  agreeably  in  contrast  to  the  prevail- 
ing high  gush  on  one  hand  and  balderdash  on  the  other. 

Among  the  writers  of  serious  and  sometimes  credit- 
able verse  whose  names  appear  in  the  Table-Rock 
Albums  were  Henry  D.  O'Reilly,  C.  R.  Rowland, 
Sarah  Pratt,  Maria  del  Occidente,  George  Menzies, 
Henry  Lindsay,  the  Rev.  John  Dowling,  J.  S.  Buck- 
ingham, the  Hon.  C.  N.  Vivian,  Douglas  Stuart,  A.  S. 
Ridgely  of  Baltimore,  H.  W.  Parker,  and  Josef 
Leopold  Stiger.  Several  of  these  names  are  not  un- 
known in  literature.  Prof.  Buckingham  is  remembered 
as  an  earlier  Bryce,  whose  elaborate  three-volume 
work  on  America  is  still  of  value.  Vivian  was  a  dis- 
tinguished traveler  who  wrote  books ;  and  Josef  Leo- 
pold Stiger' s  stanzas  beginning 

Sei  mir  gegriisst,  des  jungen  Weltreichs  Stolz  und  Zierde  ! 
are  by  no  means  the  worst  of  Niagara  poems. 


3o8  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

I  cannot  conceive  of  Niagara  Falls  as  a  scene  pro- 
motive of  humor,  or  suggestive  of  wit.  Others  may 
see  both  in  John  G.  Saxe's  verses,  of  which  the  first 
stanza  will  suffice  to  quote  : 

See  Niagara's  torrent  pour  over  the  height, 
How  rapid  the  stream!  how  majestic  the  flood 

Rolls  on,  and  descends  in  the  strength  of  his  might, 
As  a  monstrous  great  frog  leaps  into  the  mud  ! 

The  ' '  poem  ' '  contains  six  more  stanzas  of  the  same 
stamp. 

The  writing  of  jingles  and  doggerel  having  Niagara 
as  a  theme  did  not  cease  when  the  Albums  were  no 
longer  kept  up.  If  there  is  no  humor  or  grotesqueness 
in  Niagara,  there  is  much  of  both  in  the  human  acces- 
sories with  which  the  spot  is  constantly  supplied,  and 
these  will  never  cease  to  stimulate  the  wits.  I  believe 
that  a  study  of  this  field  —  not  in  a  restricted,  but  a 
general  survey  —  would  discover  a  decided  improve- 
ment, in  taste  if  not  in  native  wit,  as  compared  with 
the  compositions  which  found  favor  half  a  century  ago. 
Without  entering  that  field,  however,  it  will  suffice  to 
submit  in  evidence  one  *'poem"  from  a  recent  publi- 
cation, which  shows  that  the  making  of  these  American 
genre  sketches,  with  Niagara  in  the  background,  is  not 
yet  a  lost  art : 

Before  Niagara  Falls  they  stood, 

He  raised  aloft  his  head. 
For  he  was  in  poetic  mood, 

And  this  is  what  he  said  : 


V 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  309 

«*Oh,  work  sublime  !     Oh,  wondrous  law 

That  rules  thy  presence  here  ! 
How  filled  I  am  with  boundless  awe 

To  view  thy  waters  clear  ! 

"What  myriad  rainbow  colors  float 

About  thee  like  a  veil, 
And  in  what  countless  streams  remote 

Thy  life  has  left  its  trail  !  " 

"Yes,  George,"  the  maiden  cried  in  haste, 

*'  Such  shades  I've  never  seen, 
I'm  going  to  have  my  next  new  waist 

The  color  of  that  green." 


From  about  1850  down  to  the  present  hour  there  is 
a  striking  dearth  of  verse,  worthy  to  be  called  poetry, 
with  Niagara  for  its  theme.  Newspapers  and  magazines 
would  no  doubt  yield  a  store  if  they  could  be  gleaned ; 
perchance  the  one  Niagara  pearl  of  poetry  is  thus 
overlooked ;  but  it  is  reasonably  safe  to  assume  that 
few  really  great  poems  sink  utterly  from  sight.  There 
is,  or  was,  a  self-styled  Bard  of  Niagara,  whose  verses, 
printed  at  Montreal  in  1872,  need  not  detain  us.  The 
only  long  work  on  the  subject  of  real  merit  that  I  know 
of,  which  has  appeared  in  recent  years,  is  George 
Houghton's  **  Niagara,"  published  in  1882.  Like  Mr. 
Bulkley,  he  has  a  true  poet's  grasp  of  the  material 
aspect  of  his  subject : 

Formed  when  the  oceans  were  fashioned,  when  all  the  world  was 

a  workshop  ; 
Loud   roared   the   furnace   fires   and   tall   leapt  the   smoke  from 

volcanoes, 


3IO  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

Scooped  were  round  bowls  for  lakes  and  grooves  for  the  sliding 

of  rivers, 
Whilst  with  a  cunning  hand,  the  mountains  were  linked  together. 
Then  through  the  day-dawn,  lurid  with  cloud,  and  rent  by  forked 

lightning, 
Stricken  by  earthquake  beneath,  above  by  the  rattle  of  thund£r, 
Sudden   the   clamor   was   pierced   by   a   voice,   deep-lunged   and 

portentous  — 
Thine,  O  Niagara,  crying,  "Now  is  creation  completed  !" 

He  sees  in  imagination  the  million  sources  of  the 
streams  in  forest  and  prairie,  which  ultimately  pour 
their  gathered  *' tribute  of  silver"  from  the  rich 
Western  land  into  the  lap  of  Niagara.  He  makes 
skillful  use  of  the  Indian  legendry  associated  with  the 
river;  he  listens  to  Niagara's  *  dolorous  fugue,"  and 
resolves  it  into  many  contributory  cries.  In  exquisite 
fancy  he  listens  to  the  incantation  of  the  siren  rapids : 

Thus,   in  some   midnight   obscure,   bent   down  by  the  storm  of 

temptation 
(So  hath  the  wind,  in  the  beechen  wood,  confided  the  story), 
Pine  trees,  thrusting  their  way  and  trampling  down  one  another, 
Curious,  lean  and  listen,  replying  in  sobs  and  in  whispers  ; 
Till  of  the  secret  possessed,  which  brings  sure  blight  to  the  hearer 
(So  hath  the  wind,  in  the  beechen  wood,  confided  the  story), 
Faltering,   they  stagger  brinkward  —  clutch  at  the  roots  of  the 

grasses, 
Cry  —  a  pitiful  cry  of  remorse  —  and  plunge  down  in  the  darkness. 

The  cataract  in  its  varied  aspects  is  considered  with 
a  thought  for  those  who 

Sin,  and  with  wine-cup  deadened,  scoff  at  the  dread  of  hereafter, — 
And,    because   all    seems   lost,    besiege    Death's   door-way   with 
gladness. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  3 1 1 

The  master-stroke  of  the  poem  is  in  two  lines : 

That  alone  is  august  which  is  gazed  upon  by  the  noble, 
That  alone  is  gladsome  which  eyes  full  of  gladness  discover. 

Herein  lies  the  rebuking  judgment  upon  Niagara's  de- 
tractors, not  all  of  whom  have  perpetrated  album  rhymes. 

Mr.  Houghton,  as  the  reader  will  note,  recognizes 
the  tragic  aspect  of  Niagara.  Considering  the  insist- 
ence with  which  accident  and  suicide  attend,  making 
here  an  unappeased  altar  to  the  weaknesses  and  woes  of 
mankind,  this  aspect  of  Niagara  has  been  singularly- 
neglected  by  the  poets.  We  have  it,  however,  exquis- 
itely expressed,  in  the  best  of  all  recent  Niagara  verse 
—  a  sonnet  entitled  ^*  At  Niagara,"  by  Richard  Watson 
Gilder. '     The  following  lines  illustrate  our  point  : 

There  at  the  chasm's  edge  behold  her  lean 
Trembling,  as,  'neath  the  charm, 
A  wild  bird  lifts  no  wing  to  'scape  from  harm  ; 
Her  very  soul  drawn  to  the  glittering,  green, 
Smooth,  lustrous,  awful,  lovely  curve  of  peril ; 
While  far  below  the  bending  sea  of  beryl 
Thunder  and  tumult  —  whence  a  billowy  spray 
Enclouds  the  day. 


There  is  a  considerable  amount  of  recent  verse  com- 
monly called  **  fugitive ' '  that  has  Niagara  for  its  theme, 
but  I  find  little  that  calls  for  special  attention.  A  few 
Buffalo  writers,  the  Rev.  John  C.  Lord,  Judge  Jesse 
Walker,  David  Gray,  Jas.  W.  Ward,  Henry  Chandler, 
and  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Copeland  among  them,  have 

»  See  "  Five  Books  of  Song,"  by  R.  W.  Gilder,  1894. 


3 1 2  Niagara  and  the  Poets, 

found  inspiration  in  the  lake  and  river  for  some  of  the 
best  lines  that  adorn  the  purely  local  literature  of  the 
Niagara  region.  Indeed,  I  know  of  no  allusion  to  Ni- 
agara more  exquisitely  poetical  than  the  lines  in  David 
Gray's  historical  poem,  ''The  Last  of  the  Kah- 
Kwahs,"  in  which  he  compares  the  Indian  villages 
sleeping  in  ever-threatened  peace  to 

the  isle 

That,  locked  in  wild  Niagara's  fierce  embrace, 
Still  wears  a  smile  of  summer  on  its  face  — 
Love  in  the  clasp  of  Madness. 

With  this  beautiful  imagery  in  mind,  recall  the  lines 
of  Byron : 

On  the  verge 

An  Iris  sits  amidst  the  infernal  surge 

Resembling,  'mid  the  tortures  of  the  scene, 
Love  watching  Madness  with  unalterable  mien. 

Byron  did  not  write  of  Niagara,  but  these  stanzas 
beginning 

The  roar  of  waters 

often  have  been  applied  to  our  cataract.  Mr.  Gray 
may  or  may  not  have  been  familiar  with  them.  In  any 
event  he  improved  on  the  earlier  poet's  figure. 

Merely  as  a  matter  of  chronicle,  it  is  well  to  record 
here  the  names  of  several  writers,  some  of  them  of 
considerable  reputation,  who  have  contributed  to 
the  poetry  of  Niagara.  Alfred  B.  Street's  well- 
known  narrative  poem,  ' '  Frontenac, "  contains  Niagara 
passages.       So   does   Levi    Bishop's   metrical   volume 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  3 1 3 

*'Teuchsa  Grondie  "  (''Whip-poor-will"),  the  Niag- 
ara portion  dedicated  to  the  Hon.  Augustus  S.  Porter. 
Ever  since  Chateaubriand  wrote  **Atala,"  authors 
have  been  prompted  to  associate  Indian  legends  with 
Niagara,  but  none  has  done  this  more  happily  than 
William  Trumbull,  whose  poem,  ''The  Legend  of  the 
White  Canoe,"  illustrated  by  F.  V.  Du  Mond,  is  one  of 
the  most  artistic  works  in  all  the  literature  of  Niagara. 

The  Rev.  William  Ellery  Channing,  the  Rev.  Joseph 
H.  Clinch,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook,  Christopher  P. 
Cranch,  Oliver  I.  Taylor,  Grenville  Mellen,  Prof. 
Moffat,  John  Savage,  Augustus  N.  Lowry,  Claude  James 
Baxley  of  Virginia,  Abraham  Coles,  M.  D.,  Henry 
Howard  Brownell,  the  Rev.  Roswell  Park,  Willis 
Gaylord  Clark,  Mary  J.  Wines,  M.  E.  Wood,  E.  H. 
Dewart,  G.  W.  Cutter,  J.  N.  Mcjilton,  and  the 
Chicago  writer,  Harriet  Monroe,  are,  most  of  them, 
minor  poets  (some,  perhaps,  but  poets  by  courtesy), 
whose  tributes  to  our  cataract  are  contained  in  their 
collected  volumes  of  verse.  In  E.  G.  Holland's 
"Niagara  and  Other  Poems"  (1861),  is  a  poem  on 
Niagara  thirty-one  pages  long,  with  several  pages  of 
notes,  "composed  for  the  most  part  by  the  Drachen- 
fels,  one  of  the  Seven  Mountains  of  the  Rhine,  in  the 
vicinity  of  Bonn,  September,  1856,  and  delivered  as 
a  part  of  an  address  on  American  Scenery  the  day 
following."  Among  the  Canadian  poets  who  have 
attempted  the  theme,  besides  several  already  named, 
may  be  recorded  John  Breakenridge,  a  volume  of 
whose  verse  was  printed  at  Kingston  in  1846  ;  Charles 


314  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

Sangster,  James  Breckenridge,  John  Imrie,  and  William 
Rice,  the  last  three  of  Toronto.  The  French- 
Canadian  poet,  Louis  Frechette,  has  written  an  excel- 
lent poem,  "Le  Niagara."  Wm.  Sharpe,  M.  D., 
*'of  Ireland,"  wrote  at  length  in  verse  on  **  Niagara 
and  Nature  Worship."  Charles  Pelham  Mulvaney 
touches  the  region  in  his  poem,  *  *  South  Africa 
Remembered  at  Niagara. ' '  One  of  the  most  striking 
effusions  on  the  subject  comes  from  the  successful 
Australian  writer,  Douglas  Sladen.  It  is  entitled  **To 
the  American  Fall  at  Niagara,"  and  is  dated  ^'  Niagara, 
Oct.  18,  1899": 

Niagara,  national  emblem  !  Cataract 

Born  of  the  maddened  rapids,  sweeping  down 
Direct,  resistless  from  the  abyss's  crown 

Into  the  deep,  fierce  pool  with  vast  impact 

Scarce  broken  by  the  giant  boulders,  stacked 
To  meet  thine  onslaught,  threatening  to  drown 
Each  tillaged  plain,  each  level-loving  town 

'  Twixt  thee  and  ocean.     Lo  !  the  type  exact  ! 

America  Niagarized  the  world. 

Europe,  a  hundred  years  agone,  beheld 
An  avalanche,  like  pent-up  Erie,  hurled 

Through  barriers,  to  which  the  rocks  of  eld 
Seemed  toy  things  —  leaping  into  godlike  space 
A  sign  and  wonder  to  the  human  race.^ 

Friedrich  Bodenstedt  and  Wilhelm  Meister  of 
Germany,  J.  B.  Scandella  and  the  Rev.  Santo  Santelli 
of  Italy  (**Cascada  di  Niagara,"   1841),  have  place 

*  Dedicatory  sonnet  in  "  Younger  American  Poets,  1830-1890,"  edited  by- 
Douglas  Sladen  and  G.  B.  Roberts. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  315 

among  our  Niagara  poets.  So,  conspicuously,  has 
Juan  Antonio  Perez  Bonalde,  whose  illustrated  volume, 
**E1  Poema  del  Niagara,"  dedicated  to  Emilio  Caste- 
lar,  with  a  prose  introduction  of  twenty-five  pages  by 
the  Cuban  martyr  Jose  Marti,  was  published  in  New 
York,  reaching  at  least  a  second  edition,  in  1883. 
Several  Mexican  poets  have  addressed  themselves  to 
Niagara.  **  A  la  Catarata  del  Niagara  "  is  a  sonnet  by 
Don  Manuel  Carpio,  whose  collected  works  have  been 
issued  at  Vera  Cruz,  Paris,  and  perhaps  elsewhere.  In 
the  dramatic  works  of  Don  Vincente  Riva  Palacio 
and  Don  Juan  A.  Mateos  is  found  **La  Catarata  del 
Niagara,"  a  three-act  drama  in  verse;  the  first  two 
acts  occur  in  Mexico,  in  the  house  of  Dona  Rosa,  the 
third  act  is  at  Niagara  Falls,  the  time  being  1847.^ 
The  Spanish  poet  Antonio  Vinageras,  nearly  fifty  years 
ago,  wrote  a  long  ode  on  Niagara,  dedicating  it  to 
*Ma  celebre  poetisa.  Dona  Gertrudis  Gomez  de 
Avellaneda.  "  In  no  language  is  there  a  nobler  poem 
on  Niagara  than  the  familiar  work  by  Maria  Jose 
Heredosia,  translated  from  the  Spanish  by  William 
CuUen  Bryant.  The  Comte  de  Fleury,  who  visited 
Niagara  a  few  years  ago,  left  a  somewhat  poetical 
souvenir  in  French  verse.  Fredrika  Bremer,  whose 
prose  is  often  unmetered  poetry  even  after  translation, 
wrote  of  Niagara  in  a  brief  poem.  The  following  is 
a  close  paraphrase  of  the  Swedish  original : 

Niagara  is  the  betrothal  of  Earth's  life 
With  the  Heavenly  life. 


»  The  only  edition  I  have  seen  was  printed  in  the  City  of  Mexico  in  1871. 


3 1 6  Niagara  and  the  Poets, 

That  has  Niagara  told  me  to-day. 

And  now  can  I  leave  Niagara.     She  has 

Told  me  her  word  of  primeval  being. 

Another  Scandinavian  poet,  John  Nyborn,  has  writ- 
ten a  meritorious  poem  on  Niagara  Falls,  an  adaptation 
of  which,  in  English,  was  published  some  years  since 
by  Dr.  Albin  Bernays. 


It  is  a  striking  fact  that  Niagara's  stimulus  to  the 
poetic  mind  has  been  quite  as  often  through  the  ear  as 
through  the  eye.  The  best  passages  of  the  best  poems 
are  prompted  by  the  sound  of  the  falling  waters,  rather 
than  by  the  expanse  of  the  flood,  the  height  of  cliffs, 
or  the  play  of  light.  In  Mr.  Bulkley's  work,  which 
indeed  exhausts  the  whole  store  of  simile  and  compar- 
ison, we  perpetually  hear  the  voice  of  the  falls,  the 
myriad   voices   of  nature,    the   awful   voice  of   God. 

*'  Minstrel  of  the  Floods," 
he  cries : 

What  pgeans  full  of  triumph  dost  thou  hymn  ! 

However  varied  is  the  rhythm  sweet 

Of  thine  unceasing  song  !     The  ripple  oft 

Astray  along  thy  banks  a  lyric  is 

Of  love ;  the  cool  drops  trickling  down  thy  sides 

Are  gentle  sonnets  ;  and  thy  lesser  falls 

Are  strains  elegiac,  that  sadly  sound 

A  monody  of  grief ;  thy  whirlpool  fierce, 

A  shrill-toned  battle-song  ;  thy  river's  rush 

A  strain  heroic  with  its  couplet  rhymes ; 

While  the  full  sweep  of  thy  close-crowded  tide 
Resounds  supreme  o'er  all,  an  epic  grand. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  3 1 7 

Of  this  class,  too,  is  the  '*  Apostrophe  to  Niagara," 
by  one  B.  Frank  Palmer,  in  1855.  It  is  said  to  have 
been  "written  with  the  pencil  in  a  few  minutes,  the 
author  seated  on  the  bank,  drenched,  from  the  mighty 
bath  at  Termination  Rock,  and  still  listening  to  the 
roar  and  feeling  the  eternal  jar  of  the  cataract. ' '  The 
Rev.  T.  Starr  King,  upon  reading  it  in  1855,  said : 
**The  apostrophe  has  the  music  of  Niagara  in  it." 
As  a  typical  example  of  the  devotional  apostrophe  it 
is  perhaps  well  to  give  it  in  full : 

This  is  Jehovah's  fullest  organ  strain  ! 

I  hear  the  liquid  music  rolling,  breaking. 
From  the  gigantic  pipes  the  great  refrain 

Bursts  on  my  ravished  ear,  high  thoughts  awaking  ! 

The  low  sub-bass,  uprising  from  the  deep. 
Swells  the  great  paean  as  it  rolls  supernal  — 

Anon,  I  hear,  at  one  majestic  sweep 
The  diapason  of  the  keys  eternal ! 

Standing  beneath  Niagara's  angry  flood  — 
The  thundering  cataract  above  me  bounding  — 

I  hear  the  echo  :     *'  Man,  there  is  a  God  !  " 

From  the  great  arches  of  the  gorge  resounding  ! 

Behold,  O  man  !  nor  shrink  aghast  in  fear  ! 

Survey  the  vortex  boiling  deep  before  thee  ! 
The  Hand  that  ope'd  the  liquid  gateway  here 

Hath  set  the  beauteous  bow  of  promise  o'er  thee  ! 

Here,  in  the  hollow  of  that  Mighty  Hand, 

Which  holds  the  basin  of  the  tidal  ocean, 
Let  not  the  jarring  of  the  spray-washed  strand 

Disturb  the  orisons  of  pure  devotion. 

Roll  on,  Niagara  !  great  River  King  ! 

Beneath  thy  sceptre  all  earth's  rulers,  mortal. 


3 1 8  Niagara  and  the  Poets. 

Bow  reverently ;  and  bards  shall  ever  sing 

The  matchless  grandeur  of  thy  peerless  portal  ! 

I  hear,  Niagara,  in  this  grand  strain, 

His  voice,  who  speaks  in  flood,  in  flame  and  thunder  — 
Forever  mayst  thou,  singing,  roll  and  reign  — 

Earth's  grand,  sublime,  supreme,  supernal  wonder. 

Such  lines  as  these  —  which  might  be  many  times 
multiplied  —  recall  Eugene  Thayer's  ingenious  and 
highly  poetic  paper  on  **The  Music  of  Niagara.'" 
Indeed,  many  of  the  prose  writers,  as  well  as  the  versi- 
fiers, have  found  their  best  tribute  to  Niagara  inspired 
by  the  mere  sound  of  falling  waters. 

That  Niagara's  supreme  appeal  to  the  emotions  is  not 
through  the  eye  but  through  the  ear,  finds  a  striking 
illustration  in  **  Thoughts  on  Niagara,"  a  poem  of 
about  eighty  lines  written  prior  to  1854  by  Michael 
McGuire,  a  blind  man.^  Here  was  one  whose  only 
impressions  of  the  cataract  came  through  senses  other 
than  that  of  sight.  As  is  usual  with  the  blind,  he  uses 
phrases  that  imply  consciousness  of  light ;  yet  to  him, 
as  to  other  poets  whose  devotional  natures  respond  to 
this  exhibition  of  natural  laws,  all  the  phenomena 
merge  in  '■'■  the  voice  of  God  "  : 

I  stood  where  swift  Niagara  pours  its  flood 
Into  the  darksome  caverns  where  it  falls, 
And  heard  its  voice,  as  voice  of  God,  proclaim 
The  power  of  Him,  who  let  it  on  its  course 
Commence,  with  the  green  earth's  first  creation  ; 


»  See  Scribner's  Monthly,  Feb.,  1881. 

^  See  *'  Beauties  and  Achievements  of  the  Blind,"  by  Wm,  Artman  and 
L.  V.  Hall,  Dansville,  N.  Y.,  1854. 


Niagara  and  the  Poets,  319 

And  I  was  where  the  atmosphere  shed  tears, 
As  giving  back  the  drops  the  waters  wept, 
On  reaching  that  great  sepulchre  of  floods,  — 
Or  bringing  from  above  the  bow  of  God, 
To  plant  its  beauties  in  the  pearly  spray. 

And  as  I  stood  and  heard,  though  seeing  nought^ 
Sad  thoughts  took  deep  possession  of  my  mind, 
And  rude  imagination  venturing  forth, 
Did  toil  to  pencil,  though  in  vain,  that  scene. 
Which,  in  its  every  feature,  spoke  of  God. 

The  poem,  which  as  a  whole  is  far  above  common- 
place, develops  a  pathetic  prayer  for  sight ;  and  em- 
ploys much  exalted  imagery  attuned  to  the  central  idea 
that  here  Omnipotence  speaks  without  ceasing ;  here  is 
A  temple,  where  Jehovah  is  felt  most. 

But  for  the  most  part,  the  world's  strong  singers  have 
passed  Niagara  by ;  nor  has  Niagara's  newest  aspect, 
that  of  a  vast  engine  of  energy  to  be  used  for  the  good 
of  man,  yet  found  worthy  recognition  by  any  poet  of 
potentials. 


This  survey,  though  incomplete,  is  yet  sufficiently 
comprehensive  to  warrant  a  few  conclusions.  More 
than  half  of  all  the  verse  on  the  subject  which  I  have 
examined  was  written  during  the  second  quarter  of  this 
century.  The  first  quarter,  as  has  been  shown,  was 
the  age  of  Niagara's  literary  discovery,  and  produced 
a  few  chronicles  of  curious  interest.  During  the  last 
half  of  the  century  —  the  time  in  which  practically  the 
whole  brilliant  and  substantial  fabric  of  American  liter- 


320  Niagara  and  the  Poets, 

ature  has  been  created  —  Niagara  well-nigh  has  been 
ignored  by  the  poets.  In  all  our  list,  Goldsmith  and 
Moore  are  the  British  writers  of  chief  eminence  who 
have  touched  the  subject  in  verse,  though  many  British 
poets,  from  Edwin  Arnold  to  Oscar  Wilde,  have  written 
poetic  prose  about  Niagara.  Of  native  Americans,  I 
have  found  no  names  in  the  list  of  Niagara  singers 
greater  than  those  of  Drake  and  Mrs.  Sigourney. 
Emerson  nor  Lowell,  Whittier  nor  Longfellow,  Holmes 
nor  Stedman,  has  given  our  Niagara  wonder  the  dowry 
of  a  single  line.  Whitman,  indeed,  alludes  to  Ni- 
agara in  his  poem  '*By  Blue  Ontario's  Shore,"  but 
his  poetic  vision  makes  no  pause  at  the  falls ;  nor 
does  that  of  Joseph  O'Connor,  who  in  his  stirring  and 
exalted  Columbian  poem,  ^'The  Philosophy  of  Amer- 
ica," finds  a  touch  of  color  for  his  continental  cos- 
morama  by  letting  his  sweeping  glance  fall  for  a 
moment, 

To  where,  'twixt  Erie  and  Ontario, 
Leaps  green  Niagara  with  a  giant  roar. 

But  in  such  a  symphony  as  his,  Niagara  is  a  subser- 
vient element,  not  the  dominating  theme.  Most  of  the 
Niagara  poets  have  been  of  local  repute,  unknown  to 
fame. 

What,  then,  must  we  conclude  ?  Shall  we  say  with 
Martin  Farquhar  Tupper  —  who  has  contributed  to  the 
alleged  poetry  of  the  place  —  that  there  is  nothing  sub- 
lime about  Niagara?  The  many  poetic  and  impas- 
sioned passages  in  prose  descriptions  are  against  such  a 


Niagara  and  the  Poets.  321 

view.  If  dimensions,  volume,  exhibition  of  power,  are 
elements  of  sublimity,  Niagara  Falls  are  sublime.  But 
it  cannot  be  said  that  superlative  exhibitions  of  nature, 
some  essentially  universal  phenomena,  like  those  ot 
the  sea  and  sky,  excepted,  have  been  made  the  specific 
subject  of  verse,  with  a  high  degree  of  success.  The 
reason  is  not  far  to  seek,  and  lies  in  the  inherent  nature 
of  poetry.  It  is  a  chief  essential  of  poetry  that  it  ex- 
press, in  imaginative  form,  the  insight  of  the  human 
soul.  The  feeble  poets  who  have  addressed  themselves 
to  Niagara  have  stopped,  for  the  most  part,  with  purely 
objective  utterance.  In  some  few  instances,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  truly  subjective  regard  has  given  us  noble  lines. 
The  poetic  in  nature  is  essentially  independent  of  the 
detail  of  natural  phenomena.  A  waterfall  150  feet  high 
is  not  intrinsically  any  more  poetic  than  one  but  half 
that  height ;  or  a  thunder-peal  than  the  tinkle  of  a  rill. 
True  poetry  must  be  self-expression,  as  well  as  interpre- 
tive of  truths  which  are  manifested  through  physical 
phenomena.  Hence  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  a 
nameless  brook  shall  have  its  Tennyson,  or  a  Niagara 
flow  unsung. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BOrSoVTOD 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


's:yi:r' 


REC^D  \  D 


ftPR2  4^G5'^P^ 


^te    4  1979 


REC.  CIR.    JAN  4      1979 


LD  21A-60m-3,'65 
(P2336sl0)476B 


General  Library 

Unirersity  of  California 

Berkeley 


.YC 


28369 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


